Recommends Variable Tuitions

Chaired by SUNY Chancellor John W. Ryan, the task force concluded that the benefits of such a plan would include: a more accurate reflection of varying costs of serving students on different campuses; providing campuses with the needed flexibility in attracting and retaining new enrollments; providing additional campus-based financial aid and student programs; and making campus more accountable to students for overall costs.

Both Ryan and Board of Trustees Chairman Thomas F. Egan endorsed the report. "The State University of New York is one of only seven public universities in the country that charges the same tuition to all undergraduates," said Ryan. "Variable tuition has been a valuable tool for public colleges in many states that maintain broad access and quality."

Said Egan, "The finding of the task force complement the University's broader plan to decentralize the governance of the University, attract and retain more students, and return more management responsibility to the campuses."

University at Albany President Hitchcock issued this statement today following the release of the report of the Temporary Task Force on Variable Campus-Based Tuition:

"The Task Force concluded that the Legislature should consider variable tuition as a policy for the State University, guided by the following principles:

• Variable tuition should not be used as a mechanism to replace state assistance to the University.
• Funds raised by a campus through a variable tuition adjustment should remain in the budget of that campus.
• To support access, a variable tuition policy must anticipate the need to allocate some portion of any new revenues collected by a campus to student financial aid at that campus.
• There should be prescribed limits to a campus' discretion to recommend an increase or decrease in tuition.
• No in-state undergraduate tuition level should be allowed to exceed the maximum award under the Tuition Assistance Program unless resources equivalent to TAP are available to cover the excess.
• Four years after implementation of a variable tuition policy, the University Trustees should submit a report to the Legislature on the policy's results and its impact on the State University.

"I strongly support the six principles as outlined in the report and urge the Legislature to consider implementation of variable mission- based tuition guided by those principles."

Three of 13 members filed a dissenting report.