Financial drought affects VCU students

Students at VCU will be able to gauge in May just how hard the economic recession is hitting Virginia’s higher education.

If tradition holds, the VCU Board of Visitors will be setting the 2009-2010 tuition rates next month. The board will be making its decisions with the knowledge that Virginia has not established a tuition cap this year for any of its universities.

Peter Lee, a fourth-year student from New York, said the affordability of VCU has become increasingly difficult.

“(I have been) trying to find a source of income that does not intrude heavily upon my current status as a student,” Lee stated in an e-mail. “If things don’t shape up, I’m going to be a senior looking at needing another year of classes . and dropping out of VCU because of costs.”

According to VCU Assistant Vice President for Finance Pam Currey, the board views VCU as an institution of access, drawing many first-generation college-going students.

“A large number of our students qualify for financial aid, and it’s been of a high interest to the board to keep tuition as reasonable as possible,” Currey said.

When the Board of Visitors makes its decisions regarding tuition in May, students will not be the only people affected. A probable increase in tuition hits home for Currey, as one of her daughters will begin attending VCU in the fall.

“I know that they’re going to be very mindful,” Currey said. “In February, when the budget cuts hit, they expressed the desire not to do midterm tuition (changes).”

According to a Board of Visitors presentation on Feb. 12, the state offered its universities two budget-planning scenarios involving moderate tuition increases over the next six years. However, neither plan figured for Virginia’s current budget situation.

“No scenarios were included which assumed substantial decreases in state funding,” the presentation states.

The presentation also stated that VCU has been among the more leanly funded of Virginia’s universities and equates times of recession with spottier financial support from the state.

Currey said the board and administration have had to strategize about dealing with the university’s long-term budget issues.

Increasing both its assumed responsibility and its financial returns, VCU has been taking a large percentage of all the enrollment growth of in-state students, even within a graphed trail of lessening support, Currey said.

“VCU has agreed to increase enrollment because Virginia has an increasing number of young people who want to go to college,” Currey said.

Currey said the Board of Visitors does not immediately consider raising tuition to make up for budget cuts.

“There is a recognition that our students work,” Currey said. “We continue to try to find ways to economize and come up with efficiencies.”