Gov. Laura Kelly's freeze on tuition could be mixed bag for Kansas' state universities
Rafael Garcia
Even the best year in terms of state legislature support for higher education funding still has some Kansas state university presidents worried.
Out of the Kansas Board of Regents' initial ask for $45.7 million to meet inflation challenges and restore some funding cuts over the pandemic school years, the Kansas Legislature ultimately appropriated $37.5 million in new funding for the six state universities.
The $45.7 million request that was part of Gov. Laura Kelly's original budget included $14.9 million to stave off an expected 2% increase in tuition at the universities, with the Regents barred from approving any tuition increases.
But when the budget went through the Legislature and lawmakers approved the $37.5 million, they removed that restriction on a tuition increase, and the state universities had prepared tuition and fee proposals that would have raised tuition by about 1% at each of their universities.
Then on Monday, Kelly approved the budget but vetoed the section removing the increase restriction, in essence restoring the tuition freeze under the original $45.7 million funding plan.
That led to university leaders scrambling to determine the effects of that freeze in time to present to the Regents at their Wednesday meeting.
Normally, the Regents review state university tuition and fee proposals and approve them at two separate meetings at the beginning of each summer.
But the tuition presentations are now essentially be a moot point, since the budget legally binds the Regents to a tuition freeze.
How much it will cost to attend state universities in Kansas
With Kelly's action, tuition will remain the same at the University of Kansas for a fourth year, and the same for the five other state universities for a third out of the last four years.
For in-state undergraduates taking 15 credit hours each fall and spring semester, these are the unchanged tuition totals students will tentatively pay during the 2022-23 school year:
• University of Kansas (Lawrence campus) — $5,046 per semester, $10,092 per year
• University of Kansas (Edwards campus) — $5,564 per semester, $11,129 per year
• KU Medical Center — $5,132 per semester, $10,246 per year
• Kansas State University — $4,745 per semester, $9,490 per year
• Kansas State University Aerospace and Technology Campus (Salina) — $4,391 per semester, $8,781 per year
• Wichita State University — $3,421 per semester, $6,843 per year
• Emporia State University — $2,639 per semester, $5,278 per year
• Pittsburg State University — $2,918 per semester, $5,836 per year
• Fort Hays State University — $2,074 per semester, $4,148 per year
While each of the state university presidents said that this year's state budget appropriations are a welcome respite after years of dwindling funding, another year of a tuition freeze is putting a serious strain on their budgets.
Before Kelly's veto, the universities had planned to present tuition increase proposals of about 1% that would have gone toward long-needed salary increases for faculty and staff and strategic enrollment efforts, among other initiatives.
Kansas university presidents frustrated with Gov. Kelly's tuition freeze
While the exact figures are finalized at the end of the spring, the tuition proposals are the results of months of work to save every penny possible.
Emporia State University interim president Ken Hush said his university community had originally come up with a 3% tuition increase but ultimately settled on what they felt was a "good investment" increase of 1%.
He said the whole ordeal with Kelly's veto has been a head-scratcher for him.
"I don't understand a lot of things, and I'm certainly not an expert, but I find it interesting that the Kansas Board of Regents are not making the decision about our university's tuition and costs," Hush told the board.
"I wonder what kind of precedent that sets on a go-forward basis, but I ask myself lots of questions," he said.
And even though the $37.5 million is helping universities return to pre-pandemic and pre-2008 recession funding levels, much of it is tied to specific initiatives and won't help with the institution's operating costs.
At the state's flagship University of Kansas, officials have worked down a $50 million structural budget deficit they had anticipated at the start of the pandemic by about half, Chancellor Doug Girod said.
Although Kelly had included a provision to increase state employee pay by 5%, the appropriations for the university will only help meet that figure for about 24% of KU's salaries, he said.
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That will be a barrier for the university as it tries to reach any of its strategic goals.
"We can't really think that we're going to hold ourselves flat in perpetuity and expect a different outcome," Girod said. "That just doesn't make sense."
In western Kansas, Fort Hays State University president Tisa Mason said that even after difficult budget decisions to cut $2.1 million, the university was still facing a financial challenge next fiscal year.
A tuition freeze still results in a $1.1 million budget shortfall at the university of about 19,000 students.
The university's initial proposal to increase tuition by 3.1%, or about $128 per school year, would still have kept the state's lowest tuition rate at Fort Hays, she said.
"Although the governor's decision will present challenges, we remain very grateful for the investment in higher education, and we will make the necessary decisions to remain relentlessly focused on the mission of providing a high quality, affordable education," Mason said.
College, student fees are still on the Kansas Regents table
The Regents, at any rate, are still able to consider proposals on student fee changes and expanding in-state tuition rates to out-of-state students.
The fees are tacked on to students' tuition bills to pay for some university-wide services like recreation, parking or student health, and some college-specific expenses like laboratory equipment.
Like tuition, most of those fees had been kept flat or to a minimum over the last few years, under the Regents' focus on maintaining low costs of attendance.
The Regents last year had directed university and student leaders to involve more campus input on developing the student fee proposals, which have been in the works since the fall and were not affected by Kelly's veto, officials said.
For the university's that are seeking student support service fee increases, many of them are focused on raising new revenues for improving and expanding access to mental health services.
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At Pittsburg State University, outgoing president Steve Scott said a $15 (1.8%) increase in the campus privilege fee would help hire a mental health counselor and decrease wait times from two to three weeks for students facing mental health emergencies.
He said any increases, tuition or otherwise, are only made after careful consideration of urgent needs on their campuses.
"This is the most difficult decision that we make as university presidents — to raise tuition — because it has a direct impact on the people we are trying to serve and their families," Scott, who retires this summer, said.
"So I bring this proposal today with that seriousness that that kind of framing represents," he continued.
Kansas universities looking to expand reach across the nation
Although they're barred from raising tuition next year, some Kansas universities are looking outside of the state for new revenue streams.
Kansas State University president Richard Linton presented a proposal that would expand the university's in-state tuition eligibility to much of the country.
Like most other institutions, K-State charges more than double the Kansas resident tuition rate for out-of-state students, although the university offers several tuition discount programs for specific states, particularly those in the Midwest.
K-State's proposal would further expand in-state tuition eligibility to prospective undergraduates across entire country based on students' high school grade point averages.
Starting with a 3.25 GPA, out-of-state students would pay smaller tuition rates, with students who achieve at least a 3.9 receiving a full discount and paying the in-state tuition rate.
Such a program would not be retroactive and would only apply starting with the freshman class of 2022, Linton said.
The proposal comes as K-State and other state universities deal with a shrinking pool of college-going Kansas high school graduates.
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Linton said that by the university's estimates, K-State would only need to attract 35 new students who would have not otherwise considered the university to break even.
"I think this is more than just money, though," Linton, who started this spring, said. "I think this is about reputation.
"I think this is brand, and frankly, for us, it's about the relationship we have with the city of Manhattan, who is struggling with 18% less students in Manhattan."
Emporia State University is also seeking an expansion of its resident tuition rate eligiblity, Hush, the interim president, said.
The university's Corky Plus tuition plan offers in-state tuition for a very select number of Oklahoma and Missouri counties, but Emporia State's proposal would expand that to all 49 states and U.S. territories beginning fall 2023.
"We just want to be competitive," Hush said. "We look at it from the overall supply and demand of Kansas and our system and us competing with each other for students.
We at Emporia State want to go elsewhere, but we don't want to be disadvantaged. We want to be on an even keel and attack enrollment and pursue students in other states."
Kansas Regents to decide on fee proposals in June
Wednesday's meeting was a first reading of the proposals, and since the Regents won't vote on the plans until June, the board held little discussion on the proposals, save for a few questions for the university presidents.
After the meeting, Regents chair Cheryl Harrison-Lee said the board was grateful for the Statehouse's support for higher education funding.
"We've received a record amounting of funding this year from the Legislature and governor, and we're going to try to see if there's a way for us to utilize those funds to address some of these needs," Harrison-Lee told The Capital-Journal.
But she noted the Regents still continue to face challenges in increasing and maintaining enrollment levels, addressing sorely-needed deferred maintenance needs on campus buildings and paying faculty and staff competitive salaries in the years to come.
Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.