LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 16, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky has created a special Web site for parents designed to provide more information and answer questions about proposed tuition and fee increases.
Last week, UK officials announced a proposed tuition increase next semester of $375 for in-state, entering freshmen. The proposed increase is necessary to help pay for faculty and staff salary increases and student scholarships.
In a letter to more than 4,000 families of UK students, President Lee T. Todd Jr. said he was establishing the informational Web site to provide more detailed information about the proposed rates and give families a forum to ask questions and address concerns.
In addition to information about the proposed changes, the site also contains links to resources, ranging from financial aid and dining to housing and scholarships. Additional features will be added soon, including a list of commonly asked questions and answers.
“I know the strain the increasing costs of college can place on families,” Todd said in his letter that was distributed by e-mail this week. “For many of you, college tuition is already a stretch.”
However, Todd notes in the letter, the increases “are the only way that we can secure the funding to provide desperately needed raises for faculty and staff as well as maintaining funding for student scholarships – scholarships that help keep Kentucky’s children in the Commonwealth.”
Between 2001 and the end of the fiscal year 2006, cumulative state funding for UK will have been cut $86 million. Yet, enrollment is up 7 percent. Freshman enrollment this year is up 30 percent.
In the last three years, UK has found savings of more than $35 million to hold down costs. But Todd said those savings don’t offset the funding cuts the university has sustained or the dramatically increasing costs for health care, utilities and general maintenance.
“We’re educating more students. We’re educating the best students, including yours,” Todd writes. “But we’re receiving far fewer dollars with which to do the job.”
The proposed increases, if adopted by the UK Board of Trustees at its March 9 meeting, will help increase the pool for faculty and staff salaries by 3 percent. In addition, a “Fighting Fund” will be created to retain the best faculty.
UK also intends to invest $13.5 million in student scholarships and increase its contribution to employee health-care coverage by 10 percent, or about $3.6 million.
“The simple truth is we can’t cut our way to being a great university,” Todd writes. “And we can’t cut our way to providing the best teachers and resources necessary to educate our students.”
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