PENNSYLVANIA Governing board postpones vote on effort to raise tuition

HARRISBURG (AP) -- The governing board of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities postponed voting Thursday on whether to raise tuition for the 2004-05 school year by nearly 7 percent after Gov. Ed Rendell stepped in to oppose the increase.
In a letter to the State System of Higher Education board Thursday, Rendell said the system had failed to make a "compelling argument" for an increase during state budget negotiations. He noted that the budget, which he signed into law Monday, increases the universities' total state funding by 4.3 percent.
The board typically sets tuition rates for its more than 104,000 students in early July, after the Legislature has passed a state budget.
In its initial request to Rendell last fall, the system sought $446 million in "education and general" funding and expected to increase tuition by 5.5 percent, or about $253 annually for resident undergraduate students, to balance a budget of more than $1 billion, of which about $800 million represents salaries and benefits for professors and other unionized employees. Tuition for the 2003-04 school year was $4,598 a year for Pennsylvania undergraduate students.
Board chairman Charles Gomulka said after the board's meeting that a 6.9 percent tuition increase -- about $317 a year for resident undergraduates -- would have been needed to balance the budget instead.
Keeping tuition flat would leave the system with a $40 million budget deficit, Gomulka said.