UTPA, UTB tuition increases confirmed

AUSTIN — Students attending the Rio Grande Valley’s two public universities will be paying more for their education over the next two years.

The University of Texas Board of Regents approved tuition and fee increases for its nine academic institutions for the next two years and six health institutions for the next academic year during a special-called meeting Wednesday. But the board agreed to review tuition and fee costs for the 2011-2012 school year should the Texas State Legislature make changes in its appropriations to higher education when it convenes next year.

For students at the University of Texas-Pan American and the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, that means undergraduates will be paying about $140 more per semester in tuition and fees next year and the following year, which translates to about a 5-percent increase. Costs for graduate students are slightly more.

Despite the increases, the Valley’s universities remain the lowest in the UT System and among the lowest in state institutions of higher learning, according to figures presented at the meeting.

Presidents of each of the UT System’s academic institutions, accompanied by staff and student representatives, presented their proposals, which included cost-saving measures they have undertaken and what cost increases they planned to implement.

(Earlier in the Board of Regents meeting, UT System Chancellor Dr. Francisco Cigarroa updated members on the 5-percent expenditure cuts the institutions made, totaling more than $175 million, that Gov. Rick Perry requested of all state agencies earlier this year.)

Though most of the students who attend the Valley institutions qualify for Pell grants and other financial aid, their families cannot afford to contribute anything toward their education, said the presidents for those universities.

And though both institutions are seeing steady growth in enrollment, they cannot depend solely on student population increases to increase revenues.

Both institutions formed committees composed of students, staff, faculty and administrators last year to determine what increases should be made. Those committees presented their proposals to students last fall. At first, the planned increases received mixed responses from students, who understood that more money was needed to move their campuses forward but were concerned about how much the increases would burden them.

"At the end of the day I realized a growing university needs funding," said Ruby De La Fuente, president of UTB/TSC’s Student Government Association.