RIBGHE proposal passes, two tuition waivers eliminated

03/24/09 -Yesterday, the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education voted to eliminate tuition waivers for Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Educations and WSBE-TV Rhode Island PBS Channel 36 employees and their dependents.Students, along with faculty members that would be affected by the cut, showed up during open forum at URI Foundation building in an attempt to persuade the board into keeping the waivers that they depend on.

The elimination of the waivers removes approximately $131,000 from the state budget, putting 75 students at risk of not being able to finish college or facing unplanned debt upon graduation.

Sophomore Ben Sienko's father is a professor at Rhode Island College. Sienko said the tuition waiver he received helped him make his decision to come to URI, instead of other universities that had offered him scholarships.

"It is an investment for the state of Rhode Island when kids like me finish college. We will do great things for this state or the nation, for that I am sure," Sienko said.

Karen Cooper, an employee of the Rhode Island Department of Education, agrees the decision to cut waivers will hurt students.

"We are going to lose these students if you don't keep the waiver," she said. Her main concern was that students who work hard to come to URI will no longer have the opportunity to.

Her son, freshman Zach Cooper, said to the board, "the academic ideals that I try to live up to every day will become just that much more obscure if the tuition waiver is abolished."

The bill was passed with only one board member, Judge Robert Flanders, openly opposing the elimination of the tuition waiver.

Commissioner Jack Warner mentioned that if there was a way the entities could reimburse the universities, then the waivers could continue.

This is not the first time elimination of the waivers has been proposed to the board. In 2008 Representative Lisa Baldelli-Hunt proposed a bill, which would have eliminated the tuition waiver entirely. A revised version of the bill this year seemed to be more appealing to the committee with just the removal of the waivers from RIDE and WSBE-TV. They accounted for 2.7 percent of 2008's total tuition waivers.

This cut is among many from the mid-year 2009 budget, which saw revenue plummet over the past five years because of the economic woes the state and nation are facing.

The continued decline in general revenue appropriation has brought on a significantly lower proportion of state support in URI's budget over the past five years. In 2004 state general revenue support was 20 percent. In the mid-year report for 2009 it is at 11 percent.

The decrease in out-of-state student enrollment generated a $3.3 million decrease in revenue, causing URI to institute a $250 emergency mid-year surcharge on spring 2009 tuition bills. The surcharge generated $3.1 million in additional revenue for the school.

In the restricted budget, revenues are projected to increase by $23.5 million and expenses by $23.3 million. Deficits in the University Bookstore, Parking Services, the Ryan Center and the Boss Arena are also a result of the struggling economy.

To remedy the situation the board is looking to place a $20 annual increase in the building fee for 2010 and an annual increase of $130 during fiscal year 2011.