Ellen Nelson

The upcoming school year will bring about an anticipated increase in tuition and fee rates for SDSU.

Requiring an extra meeting to discuss the issue, the Board of Regents established a 4.6 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees at an April 15 meeting.

“This was a very difficult issue to address,” said Janelle Toman, director of information and institutional research of the BOR. “To keep tuition low, you have to cut things, which could affect an overall sense of quality.”

Juggling with the budget that the South Dakota Legislature approved last month, the Board of Regents had to decide how much funding will be cut from the state’s universities and how much tuition should be raised to cover some of those cuts.

“(The Board) really struggled with varying staff proposals,” said Toman, referring to the many coping options members of the board had proposed.

However, the Board did accomplish its goal of avoiding a double-digit increase.

As stated in a March 31 article in The Collegian, Jack Warner said the Regents would make every effort to minimize the impact of fees to students.

“I am pleased with the outcome of the meeting,” said Warner, executive director of the Board.

Maintaining the overall quality of the state’s universities was the priority, he said.

The Board will continue to consider what areas will receive cuts. Universities are supposed to present their proposed cuts to the Board at its June meeting.

As a result of the Legislature’s budget, the Regents were faced with either increasing tuition enough to compensate for the lack of state funds or to cut funds from certain areas within the universities.

“It’s not an easy situation, but the appropriate balance with making cuts and increasing fees was made,” said Warner.