Board of Trustees approves 2012-13 budget

The IU Board of Trustees has approved a $30.3 million increase in the 2012-13 budget, which will go toward merit-based salary increases, additional financial aid and utilities costs.

Money used for the increased budget comes from the tuition increase approved by the Board of Trustees in May 2011, along with interest rates and research dollars, said IU Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald.

For the 2012-13 academic year, in-state tuition will increase by 3.5 percent and out-of-state tuition by 5.5 percent.

Theobald said though tuition is rising, the additional financial aid provided through the budget will keep students’ out-of-pocket costs down.

Associate Vice President of University Communications Mark Land said students are paying nearly the same amount as they were five or six years ago. He added that the University has doubled the amount of money put into scholarships and grants during the last few years.

“A lot of people are concerned when tuition goes up,” he said. “Tuition is the sticker price, and many, many people don’t pay that.”

Theobald said IU President Michael McRobbie’s main focus when allocating the budget is affordability and academic excellence. To continue academic excellence, Theobald said McRobbie wanted to give salary increases to staff members who have not received them in recent years. The 2012-13 budget calls for 1.5 to 2.2 percent increases to IU employees across all eight campuses.

“It’s a big University, so we were able to do as much as we could on salaries,” Theobald said. “It’s never as much as we’d like to do. But an average of 2.2 percent demonstrates the president’s commitment to academic excellence and the role our employees playin that.”

Along with the budget increase, Theobald said $68 million in one-time funds will be used for deferred maintenance projects across the eight campuses. According to an IU press release, the University’s deferred maintenance backlog is estimated at $600 million.

Money for the projects comes from student fees initiated for the 2012-13 academic year. The fees range from $120 to $360 and were decided upon in May 2011 along with tuition increase, Theobald said.

IU-Bloomington students will pay a one-time fee of $360.

The student fee will raise $25 million of the $68 million across the eight campuses, Theobald said. IU-Bloomington will receive $43.3 million of the maintenance funds, with $13.8 million coming from the student fee.

IU is one of three public universities in Indiana to employ the student fee, Theobald said. Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College have already used the fee, he said.

“It’s temporary, and our hope is the state starts funding facilities and that fee will go away,” Theobald said.

Though the budget will increase by only 1.7 percent, Theobald said the additional funds will be well spent.

“It’s lean, but our priorities here are salaries and financial aid, and we were at least able to make some progress in both,” he said.