Universities to get 7% aid increase

HARRISBURG (AP) -- The governing board of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities approved a state aid request Thursday of $464.6 million for the 2005-06 fiscal year -- an increase of more than 7 percent.
Kim E. Lyttle, the board's vice chairman, said in a statement that the increase was necessary to help the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education pay for employee raises -- many of them tied to union contracts -- escalating health-insurance costs, rising utilities and maintenance costs, and programs to improve the schools' academic quality.
Although new tuition rates will not be set until July at the earliest, the request assumes they would rise by 6.2 percent, or about $300 annually for Pennsylvania undergraduate students, in order to balance the system's proposed $1.2 billion budget, spokesman Kenn Marshall said.
The universities received a nearly 4 percent increase in state aid for the current year, but the state appropriation is still $4 million less than it was in the 1999-2000 fiscal year because of recent budget cuts, officials said. The schools enroll nearly 106,000 students.
The state-owned universities are Slippery Rock, Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, and West Chester.