Campus Strides Forward with Technology
University
Reporter
ECOS Researchers Examine Environmental Damage from the World Trade Center
Attacks
Noam Chomsky Speaks at UMass Boston’s Human Rights Forum
State Budget Cuts Mean Spending Reductions, First Fee Increase in Five
Years
Campus Strides Forward with Technology
Clark Taylor Retires: Son Jeff Taylor’s Gift Establishes Technology
Center in Father’s Name
Benchmarks Analyst Clayton-Matthews Tracks Massachusetts Economy
Best Practices: Student Support Services
English Professor Betsy Klimasmith Receives NEH Fellowship
Africana Studies Department Celebrates First Homecoming
Compston Biography of Earl Warren, “Justice for All”
Philosophy Professor Examines Race and Racism
New Book on Latino Politics in Massachusetts
Greater Boston Broadband Network Comes Into Focus
Steelwork Begins on New Campus Center
By Anne-Marie Kent
The recently approved Massachusetts state budget included a $25.5 million reduction in funding for the University of Massachusetts. The general appropriation for the university system declined from $483.6 to $464.1 million — a decrease of $19.5 million or 4 percent — and its libraries sustained a $6 million reduction.
Responding to this cut, the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees on December 10 approved a fiscal stabilization plan that includes significant spending reductions, as well as increases in mandatory fees for most undergraduate and graduate students which will go into effect for the spring 2002 semester.
The increase affects undergraduate and graduate students on the Boston and Lowell campuses, and undergraduates in Amherst and Worcester’s medical and other graduate students. It is the first time that the total student charge (tuition and fees) has increased since the 1995-1996 academic year.
Board of Trustees Chair Grace Fey said, “Our campuses are making difficult spending reductions but cannot close the gap by cuts alone. Raising fees is a step we simply must take.” She added, “The Board of Trustees is committed to maintaining the academic excellence of the University of Massachusetts system and believes that adequate levels of funding must be maintained.”
UMass Boston Chancellor Jo Ann Gora said, “At UMass Boston, we are going to manage these cuts so that we can maintain our priorities of developing academic centers of excellence, improving our physical plant, and bringing greater attention to the excellent work of our academic departments, centers, and institutes.”
Under the vote, tuition and mandatory fees in the UMass system — by weighted average — will rise from $4,681 to $5,047, for an increase of $366 or 7.8 percent. According to the College Board, the average student charge increase at U.S. four-year public institutions in 2001-2002 was 7.7 percent. The campus increases will be: at Amherst, $495 (undergraduates only); at Boston and Lowell, $350 (undergraduate and graduate students); at Medical School, $495 (all students).
The new fees will generate an estimated $12.1 million during Fiscal Year 2002, which ends June 30. These funds are much needed for campuses to continue serving students. In recommending the fee increase, President William M. Bulger said, “It is critical to maintain all that has been achieved at the University of Massachusetts. Our students must have the academic resources demanded by today’s competitive environment.”
From 1995-1996 to 2000-2001, tuition and fees at the University of Massachusetts actually declined by 6 percent. With today’s increase factored in, tuition and fees – for 1995-1996 through 2001-2002 - have increased by only 2.6 percent. Nationally, the increase in tuition and fees during that same period at four-year public higher education institutions, according to the College Board, rose by a full 34 percent.
Chancellor Gora added that, at under $5,000 per year, UMass Boston remains an excellent value. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, tuition and fees at private four-year institutions in Massachusetts this year average $20,098.