In his struggle to balance the state's deficit-stricken budget, Gov. Mark R. Warner has both students and faculty in public colleges across Virginia clamoring against his proposal to hike in-state tuition 5 percent while slashing funding by Virginia's public colleges.
Warner's tuition proposal, designed to rectify a projected $5 billion shortfall in the state's budget over the next four-and-a-half-years, lifts a five-year-old cap on in-state tuition and allows for a 5 percent increase.
All but a small portion of the extra revenue will be returned directly to the state's general fund.
"It's the result of poor planning," said Michael J. Smith, government and foreign affairs professor, and the chair-elect of the Faculty Senate. "For the past eight years we had a good economy."
Of the estimated $119 million that would be generated over the next two years by raising tuition, colleges should expect to see only $14 million.
"Students are really upset," said Simmi Bhuller, student body vice president at George Mason University. "Faculty are pretty disgruntled, too."
According to Bhuller, backlash on their campus has been so vehement that GMU's student council organized a protest scheduled for today.
"It's going to be pretty large," said Bhuller.
Vocal disapproval is not exclusive only to GMU, but extends to Universities across the state.
In a letter to students and faculty, William & Mary President Timothy J. Sullivan called the plan "a tax on college students and their parents to support the general government, rather than to advance the college's educational programs."
University President John T. Casteen III was no less critical of Warner's plan.
"It sets a poor policy precedent," he said. "It is not hard to understand why students and their parents call this a tax."
The state-wide tuition increase will accompany a mandated 3 percent budget cut for the state's colleges.
University administrators agree that budget cuts will hit faculty the hardest by necessitating a freeze on all pay raises. They also believe it will halt efforts to attract and recruit new faculty and administration members.
"It's a reasonable thing to consider a tuition increase after a five-year freeze," said William & Mary Government Prof. John McGlennon, "but it's still a source of concern that colleges do not receive the money, and it's certainly demoralizing not to see pay increasing."
Faculty also expressed more of a doomsday sentiment, questioning the effect that the measure might have on the long-term quality of higher education in Virginia.
"It's going to put a stop to recruiting new talent, and it's going to be harder to retain faculty," Smith said. "This round of cuts likely is to have a devastating effect on the University."
"What happens when people retire?" Faculty Senate Chairman Robert M. Grainger said. "It's certainly going to affect the stature of the University."
Some officials expressed a general disenfranchisement with the state's attitude toward education, blaming the current crisis on years of budgetary mismanagement for which public colleges now are suffering.
"The state is not willing to make the long-term, stable use of funds to build a great University," Smith said. "The priorities of the state are confused"
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