Student fees raised; system expected to trim 275 jobs

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

n the wake of a state funding reduction in the University system's budget totaling $25.5 million, the Board of Trustees voted Dec. 10 to add $495 to undergraduate student fees for the spring semester on the Amherst campus and approved plans to reduce staff size. The Amherst campus plans to eliminate 160 positions by the end of the fiscal year, 100 through attrition and 60 through layoffs. System-wide, 275 positions are scheduled to be eliminated.

     The increase in student charges includes $230 in the curriculum fee and $265 in the service fee. The last tuition or fee increase occurred in FY96.

     "Our campuses are making difficult spending reductions but cannot close the gap by cuts alone," said trustees chair Grace Fey. "Raising fees is a step we simply must take. The Board of Trustees is committed to maintaining the academic excellence of the University of Massachusetts system and believes that adequate levels of funding must be maintained."

     Despite the fee increase, the campus continues to have lower tuition and fees than the universities of Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to the President's Office.

     Nearly 50 percent of the cuts to the University, $12.2 million, will be absorbed by the Amherst campus, and the increase in student fees will offset about half of that amount, according to Robert Connolly, associate vice president for Communications in the President's Office. Because plans for the current fiscal year were made before the economic downturn this autumn, the campus had estimated receiving a $3 million increase in state support. The lack of increase coupled with receiving the $12.2 million cut mid-year left the campus facing a more than $15 million shortfall for the current fiscal year. Budget cuts, staff reductions, restructuring/reallocation and the fee increase are designed to mitigate the gap.

     On the verge of billing students for the spring semester, the campus is moving quickly to recalculate financial aid packages in light of the fee increase. The administration is making "every effort...to help current students return, to help students get the courses they need, and to help students graduate on time," according to an all-campus e-mail from interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams.

     Williams is considering where to make the staff reductions and expects to have more information for the campus after Jan. 1. In November, when the effects of the economic downturn became apparent, Williams asked departments to begin planning for 5 percent reductions in spending.

     In other parts of the system, fees were raised and layoffs are expected. The Boston and Lowell campuses will raise fees by $350 each for both undergraduate and graduate students, and all students at the Medical School will see fee hikes of $495. No fee increase will be in effect on the Dartmouth campus until next fall because bills for the spring semester already had been mailed when the trustees considered the increases.

     The Dartmouth campus is expected to eliminate 50 positions to help address its shortfall. Elsewhere in the system, the Boston campus will lose 33 positions, UMass Lowell will lose 30 and the President's Office will eliminate five.