A tuition hike made a couple weeks before the beginning of the semester forced out-of-state students from State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry to dig deeper into their pockets.

The increase, determined Aug. 12 by the board of trustees of SUNY, added $510 to the tuition of out-of-state undergraduate students and $530 for out-of-state graduate students. Tuition for in-state undergraduate and graduate students was unchanged from last year.

The rise came as a result of a $170 million reduction in state funds for the SUNY system, according to an Aug. 12 press release from SUNY.

It was left up to individual SUNY campuses to determine what response was necessary in light of the tuition increase. ESF chose to adjust financial aid awards to help offset the increased tuition rate.

‘SUNY tuition was caught up in the whole state budget process mess, and it wasn’t resolved until very late this summer,’ said Robert French, vice president of enrollment management and marketing at ESF.

Out of 257 full-time out-of-state, undergraduate students, 174 received increased financial aid in response to the tuition hike, French said. Graduate students who already received assistance had the full $530 increase covered.

Although most students in the SUNY system were unaffected due to the large amount of in-state students, out-of-state students felt the burden of the state budget due to simple politics, French said.

‘It is politically easier for the New York state Legislature to increase the tuition for out-of-state students because they don’t vote in New York state and neither do their parents,’ French said.

Some out-of-state students said they were unhappy with the sudden increase.

‘That doesn’t seem fair,’ said Colin Hoffman, a senior wildlife science major from Pennsylvania. ‘We should be given a fair amount of time to come up with that kind of money.’

The late announcement of the increase was a vital factor in ESF’s decision to adjust financial aid awards, French said.

‘Students thought they knew what they’d be paying until this late tuition adjustment,’ French said. ‘We thought it would be fair, so to speak, to give back as much of that increase as possible.’

The increased financial aid, either $500 or $250, was awarded on a case-by-case basis, taking financial need into account.

Special consideration was given to first-time ESF students to provide the larger $500 amount because they had received their first financial aid awards recently and planned to attend ESF based on the cost before the increase, French said.

The increased financial aid won’t affect ESF’s budget because the additional revenue from the tuition increase wasn’t factored into the budget due to the late decision.

ESF was able to help students this year, but there is no guarantee the same response will be possible in future years, French said.

‘We certainly couldn’t make an institutional commitment to doing this every year,’ French said. ‘We felt that the circumstances were very unusual this year, and we felt there was a real fairness issue involved.’

Because ESF began adjusting financial aid awards shortly after the tuition increase announcement, students received notification of the tuition hike and increased awards at the same time.

‘I would be very surprised if many of the other campuses were able to do this as quickly as we were,’ French said.

Other SUNY campuses took their own approaches to the increase.

SUNY-Cortland helped some students combat the increase with financial aid, while others already factored the extra money into their budget, said Karen Gallagher, SUNY-Cortland’s director of financial aid.

Administrators at Cortland increased the amount of a new award for incoming students by 4 percent to help offset the out-of-state resident increase. Since the award is new this year, only some freshmen have received it, leaving out-of-state upperclassmen to come up with the money on their own.

‘It’s something that’s kind of been on the table recently, and I think many people planned ahead,’ Gallagher said.

The majority of students at SUNY-New Paltz weren’t affected by the increase because out-of-state residents only make up 5 percent of the student body, said Daniel Sistarenik, director of financial aid at New Paltz.

Although New Paltz didn’t adjust all out-of-state financial aid, administrators reviewed several cases at individual students’ requests and were able to provide additional assistance to those students, he said.

‘Tuition increases are never fun, and bad timing only makes it worse,’ Sistarenik said. ‘These are tough times, and I think we did the best we could.’

jlsiart@syr.edu

 

Published on September 12, 2010 at 12:00 pm