Grand Forks, N.D. - Future tuition prices at the University of North Dakota have been a hot issue on campus.
The state legislature halted the debate when it imposed a state-wide 2.5% tuition cap for the university system, which administrators say now has UND in a multi-million dollar hole. Campus administrators are busy crunching numbers within the school's $450 million budget for the upcoming school year.
“The dollar estimate we have been working from is about a $5 million gap,” said Alice Brekke, vice president of finance and operations at the school.
“About 83 percent of North Dakota students graduate with at least some debt. We want to give our kids a chance to start out their professional careers one step ahead and that means making sure they don't graduate with a ton of debt,” said Senate Minority Leader Mac Schneider, a Democrat from Grand Forks.
The school planned to increase tuition prices by 3.7% to cover its expenses, and is now studying other alternatives for getting out of the red.
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“What are the priorities going forward to best meet our students needs, and then not just taking the easy answer which is, yes, we have a vacant position we will cut that, making sure programmatically it is in lower priorities,” explained Brekke.
After meetings this spring with the student body in which tensions were high, school administrators plan on waiting until the fall before making cuts.
“We will use some near term strategies to bridge part of that gap. We will be very intentional and inclusive in our conversations regarding if there are to be reductions what do they affect, and it is very important that our faculty, staff and students participate in those conversations,” said Brekke.
UND officials stopped short of criticizing the tuition cap, saying in the long term it motivates the university to be more financially efficient.
“We think it's a balance. Is there a tradeoff here, absolutely. We thought in good measure this was something we needed to do to keep college affordable for our students,” said Schneider.
For the upcoming school year, the in-state tuition price is just over $6,500. Out of state students will pay about $17,500.
