SIU President Says University Budget in Flux

Southern Illinois University Trustees began considering tuition and fee hike proposals Thursday, and at the same time heard dire news from the system's president.SIU President Glenn Poshard says administrators crafted their tuition and fee proposals based on information from the governor's office that showed higher education would get a flat budget for next year... but he says that information has changed, leaving question marks in place of dollar signs.  Poshard says it now appears that we're going to have to pick up money to reform the pension plan, which the university hasn't had to do in the past. And how substantial the cuts to higher-ed will be... if the state makes cuts along the lines of the agency cuts - some of which are 10%... then the university will have to make adjustments.
 
Poshard says those adjustments will have to come in the form of cuts, because once a tuition and fee schedule is adopted it can't be changed. Trustees will vote on the proposed 4.8% tuition increase, as well as fee increases, at their meeting in Edwardsville in May. Some student groups are already asking for relief in fee increases. They say the hikes are too high and are pricing some students out of higher education.