2008 Woodie Awards
Kirwan says tuition freeze likely
Megan Eckstein
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News
University System of Maryland officials say they think they can still manage a tuition freeze next year after the system was spared from a round of budget cuts passed by lawmakers late Saturday.
In fact, lawmakers said not a single member proposed cutting from the system's allocated funds as they wrangled over how to pay for the repeal of a widely disliked computer services tax passed last fall. State Senate President Mike Miller (D-Prince George's) said the General Assembly purposely tried to take it easy on higher education, because it's been on a funding roller coaster over the past decade or so.
"We're doing our very best to make certain that our flagship is not jeopardized by any budget cuts," Miller said. "We're trying to hold tuition increases - we're trying to keep the xxxx
same level they've been at for years."
About $300 million in state budget cuts were made last month because of what lawmakers called a downturning economy, but the system's funding remained largely intact. The General Assembly only cut $6.8 million from what Gov. Martin O'Malley originally proposed.
System Chancellor Brit Kirwan said the system's governing body will decide in an upcoming meeting whether to freeze tuition for the third year in a row, which is what O'Malley said he hoped for when he wrote the budget in January.
"That's ultimately a decision for the Board of Regents, but it looks like [a tuition freeze] will be the case. That's certainly my recommendation," Kirwan said. "I just think [the budget is] a real tribute to the support we have in Annapolis. We could always hope for more, but as a whole it was a very successful session, especially considering the bad economic times."
Del. Ben Barnes (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's), who represents College Park, said that higher education fared very well compared to many other areas of the budget that faced steep cuts.
"I think it was a big win for higher ed between staving off draconian cuts on the one end of the spectrum and on the other end of the spectrum also staving off any increases in tuition for another year," he said.
In fact, lawmakers said not a single member proposed cutting from the system's allocated funds as they wrangled over how to pay for the repeal of a widely disliked computer services tax passed last fall. State Senate President Mike Miller (D-Prince George's) said the General Assembly purposely tried to take it easy on higher education, because it's been on a funding roller coaster over the past decade or so.
"We're doing our very best to make certain that our flagship is not jeopardized by any budget cuts," Miller said. "We're trying to hold tuition increases - we're trying to keep the xxxx
same level they've been at for years."
About $300 million in state budget cuts were made last month because of what lawmakers called a downturning economy, but the system's funding remained largely intact. The General Assembly only cut $6.8 million from what Gov. Martin O'Malley originally proposed.
System Chancellor Brit Kirwan said the system's governing body will decide in an upcoming meeting whether to freeze tuition for the third year in a row, which is what O'Malley said he hoped for when he wrote the budget in January.
"That's ultimately a decision for the Board of Regents, but it looks like [a tuition freeze] will be the case. That's certainly my recommendation," Kirwan said. "I just think [the budget is] a real tribute to the support we have in Annapolis. We could always hope for more, but as a whole it was a very successful session, especially considering the bad economic times."
Del. Ben Barnes (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George's), who represents College Park, said that higher education fared very well compared to many other areas of the budget that faced steep cuts.
"I think it was a big win for higher ed between staving off draconian cuts on the one end of the spectrum and on the other end of the spectrum also staving off any increases in tuition for another year," he said.
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TRUEMARYLANDSTUDENT
posted 4/07/08 @ 7:53 PM EST
HOORAY!!! tuition is frozed for the upcoming year...UNFORTUNATELY they WILL increase the MANDATORY fees in order to take in more money...lets see if mandatory fees will be hiked up. (Continued…)
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