University gets $9.4 million increase

The state funding pendulum is continuing to swing back in the University's favor.

As part of his $17.8 billion proposed budget, Gov. Tom Ridge recommended a 3.25 percent increase in higher education allocations.

This proposal will mean a $9.4 million increase for the University, just below the $10.1 million, or 3.5 percent, increase the University requested.

"It is basically what we asked for our basic operating budget," said Bill Mahon, director of the Department of Public Information. "It will help us do some things that we would like to do at Penn State."

In a news release from the department of public information, University President Graham Spanier said this proposal would allow the University to "stay even" in its basic operating costs. The budget proposal would allow University programs to continue at the current level and University employees to receive a modest salary increase, according to the release.

- Graham Spanier, University president

"Gov. Ridge's budget proposal is his most generous yet for public higher education and we are especially grateful for this recognition of Penn State's accomplishments and needs," Spanier said in the release.

Robert Myers, former lobbying director for the Undergraduate Student Government and the student trustee designate, said the proposal was generous of the governor. He added that he is pleased with the increases in Ridge's proposals during the last two years.

Last year, Ridge proposed a 2 percent increase and in 1996, he proposed almost no increase for basic operating costs.

The budget also includes a 7 percent increase in funding for grants through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which Spanier said will benefit many students.

In its proposal to the state secretary of education, the University had also requested an additional 5 percent increase, which is about $14.4 million, for competitive funding, Mahon said. The funding, Spanier said in the release, is part of a four-year plan to make the University competitive nationally.

"We recognize that higher education is but one component of the Commonwealth's budget and that there are compelling competing needs," he said. "But I truly believe that an additional investment in Penn State will have great benefits for the people of Pennsylvania."

The additional money would help create 75 faculty positions to decrease class size, improve information technology and libraries and fund life science and agricultural research and cooperative extension, according to the news release.

During the legislature budget hearings, Spanier said he will ask for the additional funding to improve the quality and reputation of the University. University officials will travel to Harrisburg for budget hearings on Feb. 23 in front of the state Senate and on March 3 in front of the state House of Representatives.

Because this is only one part of the allocation process, Mahon said it was too early to determine how this increase will affect tuition.

According to the proposal submitted in September, if the University receives the entire 3.5 percent increase it requested, tuition will only be raised by the same rate as inflation -- about 3.2 percent. This tuition increase would be about $90 more per in-state student with less than 60 credits, Mahon said.

The final state allocation will not be announced and approved until June, he added.