05/20/2008
Staff Writer
Maine's full-time public university students will see their tuition bills jump an average of 10 percent starting this fall, the University of Maine System Board of Trustees decided Monday.
In a unanimous vote, trustees decided to raise tuition an average of 10.9 percent for in-state undergraduate students at the seven University of Maine campuses.
In the second day of the body's two-day meeting in Presque Isle, trustees Monday also approved a new bachelor of science in nursing degree at the University of Maine at Augusta. And trustees also voted to approve a request to rename UMA's Student Technology Center in honor of recently retired campus President Richard J. Randall.
Full-time University of Maine at Augusta students will see their bills rise $480 -- or 9.2 percent -- to $5,700 for the academic year. Full-time University of Maine at Farmington students will see tuition rise $768 -- or 11.8 percent -- to $7,296 for the academic year.
"UMA took every measure to keep the tuition increase as low as possible," UMA President Allyson Hughes Handley said in a statement. "Our budget is extremely lean for next year and includes across-the-board cuts in every department."
Most of the 135 full-time UMA students from outside the state will see their tuition increase by $1,170 -- or 9.3 percent -- to $13,800. That group makes up 2.6 percent of UMA's student body, according to data provided by the university.
Out-of-state Farmington students will pay $864 -- or 6.1 percent -- more next academic year. Their tuition bill will total $15,072.
UMA also announced on Monday that the amount of financial aid money available to students will increase by 9.2 percent to compensate for the jump in tuition.
"I do not want tuition to be an obstacle to anyone wanting to receive a UMA degree," Handley said in her statement.
UMA students on campus Monday afternoon -- the first day of the campus' summer session -- lamented the tuition increase, but said they would manage to remain enrolled.
"It's a sacrifice, but you do what you've got to do for your family," said Melinda Beaudoin, a student from Augusta who said she is raising a 4-year-old son. "The money that I'll make without getting my degree just isn't enough."
While he would prefer not to see tuition rise, Nick Shea, of Jefferson, said the price hike was necessary.
"I don't like it, obviously," he said. "I guess it has to increase with the cost of living. They have to pay the professors."
UMA tuition has jumped 21 percent in the last three academic years, from $157 per credit hour in 2006-07 to $174 per credit hour during the 2007-08 school year and $190 per credit hour in the coming academic year.
UMA Provost Josh Nadel said the new nursing degree trustees approved Monday will allow the college to expand its bachelor's degree offerings in one of UMA's most popular programs: Some 160 students are currently enrolled in UMA's nursing program, Nadel said.
"It's really going to meet an established need," he said. "The broader liberal arts education, the additional nursing program just better prepares them for the complexities of the job."
Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com
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