U of L Task Force Calls for 9% tuition hike

From The 'Ville Voice:

"A recommendation made Monday by a University of Louisville task force on tuition recommends a 9 percent increase in tuition, which would be the sixth straight year the cost of a U of L education has gone up by at least that amount.

During an on-campus walkout organized by students last week, demonstrators called for no more than a 5 percent increase in tuition next year.

The Task Force filed its report prior to the release of the state legislature’s budget, which calls for a 3 percent cut in university funding and slashed the Bucks for Brains initiative by $55 million.

The six-page document, written by Michael J. Curtin, Chair of the Task Force on Tuition and Fee Setting, makes 11 recommendations based on its work from last November through March.

Among its “observations” is that the school can’t “sustain many more years of high tuition increases above the overall level of inflation…”

No kidding.

Its rationale for the 9 percent recommendation seems to be from the conclusion that a double-digit increase would be unacceptable, and that at 9 it would be considered “reasonable.”

The letter was addressed to Provost Dr. Shirley C. Willinghanz, and requests that they be adopted by the University’s Board of Trustees.

Undergraduate tuition for residents of Kentucky would rise from $3,470 per semester to $3,782 if the University adopts the Task Force’s recommendations."

Another yellow brick in the long road to nowhere on higher education in KY.