By Carrie Pond
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-813878.mp3
Murray, KY – On a Kentucky Educational Television program Monday, state Senate President David Williams said the General Assembly needs to consider a tuition rate freeze at public universities to ensure higher education remains affordable during hard economic times. Carrie Pond speaks with a Murray State official on what that would mean for the university.
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Tom Denton is Vice President for Finance and Administrative Services at MSU. He says it would be extremely difficult to cope with a complete tuition freeze, especially after state appropriations have been reduced over the past several years. He says Williams' assertion that tuition accounts for only a small portion of universities' budgets is inaccurate. Denton says the university relies on tuition for numerous fixed costs like utilities and health insurance, both of which are becoming increasingly costly.
"It would hit us very hard. There are some other doctoral institutions that have federal programs and other types of revenues to the magnitude that we would not have, but even for those institutions it would still hit them very hard."
Denton adds cutbacks in state funding have required university officials to cut operations significantly already. A tuition freeze would force administrators through that process yet again, this time with more severe consequences.