The University of Colorado’s Boulder campus is proposing $39 million in new spending in the 2017-18 fiscal year so that it can maintain aging campus buildings, boost the salaries of its employees and offer more financial aid to needy students.
Campus finance officials unveiled their proposed $805 million budget to the CU Board of Regents this week. The regents asked questions during the meeting, but are not scheduled to take action on the 2017-18 budget until April.
As proposed, the Boulder campus’s new spending would be funded by increases in student enrollment and tuition.
This will be the second year of the campus’s new four-year tuition guarantee for in-state students, so returning undergraduates won’t see their tuition go up next year.
The same is true for out-of-state and international students, who have had a tuition guarantee since the fall of 2005.
“All continuing students will see a zero percentage change,” said Kelly Fox, the chief financial officer on the Boulder campus. “(The increase to) incoming students’ tuition and fees is going to be capped at 5 percent.”
If the regents approve the proposed budget later this spring, the class of Colorado students who enroll in the fall will pay $10,248 in tuition each year for the next four years — a 4.9 percent increase from this year’s rate.
Incoming out-of-state students will pay $34,382 per year and incoming international students will pay $36,066. Both reflect a 3.2 percent increase from this year’s tuition rate.
The campus is also proposing a 3 percent increase for graduate student tuition rates.
If the budget is approved, mandatory student fees for the incoming class of undergraduates will rise from $1,763 to $1,849 per year — a 4.9 percent increase.
Based on those proposed rate increases and expected enrollment growth, the campus is projecting $34.5 million in additional revenue from tuition and fees next year. The campus is also hoping for an additional $3 million in state funding based on Gov. John Hickenlooper’s proposed budget request.
CU has seen sustained enrollment growth in recent years, which has strained existing campus offices, as well as individual schools and colleges. The campus plans to distribute roughly $7.5 million of that new revenue to cover the costs associated with serving more students.
“We are looking at increasing support for academic units,” Fox told the board. “As you are probably aware, we have been experiencing enrollment increases. That does drive increased needs for support.”
The campus also plans to spend an additional $9 million on salaries and benefits next year, which includes a 2.5 percent merit pool for employee raises.
On top of that, the campus wants to invest an additional $5 million in its employees through several initiatives.
CU wants to create a salary pool to address compression, which occurs when new hires start at or above the salaries of existing employees doing the same job. The pool, which translates to roughly $3.3 million, will bring “the salaries for existing employees more in line with the market and with their peers,” according to budget documents.
Over the next three years, the campus wants to incrementally increase the stipend it provides to graduate teaching assistants.
Next year, they want to raise the 10-month stipend from $19,073 to $20,208, which reflects a 5.9 percent increase and $1 million in new spending.
“We have been trying to address our graduate stipend and I can definitely appreciate how difficult it is for those who are trying to live in Boulder — it’s tough,” Fox said, noting that the campus invested an additional $1.3 million in graduate student stipends this year.
A graduate teaching assistant spoke to the board during the public comment portion of Friday’s meeting. He described the current stipend level as “extremely substandard” and said most graduate teaching assistants spend half of their income on rent in Boulder.
The campus also wants to address high turnover rates among frontline service workers such as custodians, dining services employees and security personnel, so officials have proposed an entry-level salary of at least $12.10 per hour for those employees. CU also wants to create an apprenticeship program and bolster its carpool offerings for these employees.
Other additional spending initiatives include $3.6 million for institutional financial aid and $3.5 million for deferred maintenance on campus buildings.
Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta
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