Katie England
The budget model recently released at Colorado State University-Pueblo indicates that tuition will go up during Fiscal Year 2015, but the model is not final and could change depending on many factors.
The FY 2015 begins July 1, 2014 and ends June 30, 2015. The budget for this time period will be gone reviewed constantly and changed over the course of the next five months, according to Jen Mullen, chief of staff at CSU-Pueblo.
The budget will be presented in its final form in May 2014, to the Board of Governors of the CSU System.
The current budget model shows a 6 percent increase in tuition for students at CSU-Pueblo in FY 2015. It also shows an increase in the differential tuition rates, which are higher rates on tuition for nursing, engineering business and computer information systems, from $25 per credit hour to $75 per credit hour. But these numbers are by no means set in stone.
“There is no decision yet on what a possible tuition increase will be, because it’s a complex process. We work very closely with the CSU System and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to develop the budget,” Mullen said.
CSU-Pueblo’s administrators are not alone in making the decisions about whether to raise tuition, Mullen said, since they must get approval from the CSU System Board of Governors before making any changes.
Now that the budget model has been released, the University Budget Board will continue to give President Lesley Di Mare feedback on the budget. The University Budget Board consists of representatives from the various colleges on campus, as well as student representatives from the Associated Students’ Government.
Then, Mullen said, in December the university administration will consult with the Board of Governors about the budget.
Once changes have been made to the budget, President Di Mare will share that draft of the budget with the campus in either January or February. Input will be gathered from staff and students through a process, which will be figured out over break.
That draft of the budget will look much different than the current budget model, Mullen said.
Mullen said that, though the budget model currently includes a tuition increase for next year that could easily change by the time the budget is presented to the Board of Governors for approval.
“Keep in mind, that when we create any budget, it’s always a bunch of moving parts. It’s a plan, a projection. Sometimes we get more revenue than we expected, or less. Sometimes things cost us more than we thought, or less. So even when it (the budget) gets approved each year, every single month we revise it and see how we’re doing based on the projections we made,” Mullen said.
The university is currently looking at options for generating revenue and making sure it can live within the budget projects it establishes.
“We don’t want to spend more than we bring in,” Mullen said.