Pretty good article covering the Kansas Board of Regents 2008 datebook report,
Kansas Liberty: 09 December 2008
Operating costs triple over 20 years, tuition jumps five times. Maybe KU should go to Fort Hays to take the course in how to hold down costs.
Why are costs at Kansas' universities skyrocketing?
Operating costs at the University of Kansas have more than tripled in the last 20 years despite stable enrollment figures. The rising costs are largely the result of a substantial increase in the amount of services provided at KU, combined with the decrease in state financing.
According to the University of Kansas Office of Institutional Research and Planning, the operating costs at KU for fiscal year 1988 were $204 million, with 40 percent of the funds coming from state appropriations. KU's ballooning figures were reported in a national education journal.
In fiscal year 2008 the school is at $677 million in operating costs, with just 22 percent of the funding coming from state appropriations.
But the University of Kansas is not alone in its skyrocketing operating costs.
According to the Kansas Board of Regents 2008 datebook report, out of the six state universities- the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Emporia State University, Pittsburg State University and Fort Hays State University- all but one have experienced substantial increases in operating costs during the last five years.
Fort Hays State University is the sole college to experience a decrease in operating costs per credit hour between fiscal year 2002 and fiscal year 2007. Fort Hays’ cost per credit hour decreased from $249 per student credit hour to $238 per credit hour, or a decrease of 4.2 percent.
Wichita State University had the largest change, with a 37.9 percent increase in operating costs. The University of Kansas had the next-largest increase with a 28.2 percent raise, and Kansas State University followed closely behind with a 24.8 percent increase.
Emporia State University experienced the lowest increase in expenditures with an 11 percent increase.
The six state universities have increased their costs per credit hour by an average of 23.9 percent.
KU's rising costs were the subject of a lengthy feature in the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
According to the Chronicle, in 1988, KU "contained just under five million square feet of building space. Today, with the dozens of new and expanded buildings added since, its square footage has nearly doubled. The additions include two science buildings, a fitness center complete with climbing wall (naturally), the Dole Institute of Politics building, a multicultural resource center, and a performing-arts center with a separate recital hall for organ concerts."
HOW THE KANSAS CAMPUS HAS CHANGED IN 20 YEARS
Buildings in blue are new or renovated since 1988.
Copyright 2008 Chronicle of Higher Education. Republished with permission.
Among the Chronicle's other points:
"In 1988, the university employed just under 4,000 people; today the number is 25 percent higher, the result mostly of nonfaculty additions but also 100 new tenure-track jobs."
State financing has "nearly doubled since 1988, to $150.6-million [but] the overall proportion of the university's operating expenses covered by the state has declined markedly, from 40 percent in 1988 to 22 percent in 2008. (Those figures exclude money the university spends on intercollegiate athletics, a high-profile program whose annual budget doubled over the past 20 years to about $50-million; university leaders say private donations cover those costs.)"
"The university has made up for some of the decline in state funds with greater support from private donations and from grants and contracts. But to a larger degree, it has relied on higher tuition and fees to fill the gap — and to expand its spending."
"This fall, entering freshmen pay $7,724. That is just two-thirds the cost of the other major public research universities in the AAU, but it still reflects an increase since 1988 that is three times greater than the rate of inflation."
"Fifteen years ago (that's as far back as data were readily available), energy costs [at KU] were nearly $5.2-million a year, or about $1.11 per square foot, excluding residence halls and a few other buildings. By 2007, the total expense for the same set of facilities was almost double that, or nearly $9.3-million annually, with the cost per square foot having risen to $1.61."
"The university now pays more than $25-million a year for health-insurance premiums. Over the past 20 years, the cost of those premiums has gone up by 290 percent."
In contrast, Fort Hays State University has found success by becoming innovative as a way of staying alive.
Kent Steward, director of university relations at Fort Hays, said that a downturn in the state’s economy roughly five years ago inspired Fort Hays officials to come up with ways to reduce costs.
According to Steward some of the savings the university has created include
$773,000 a year on average in energy costs by building gas-fired generators to utilize during peak usage times
$305,000 a year by consolidating various aspects of education departments
$2.5 million in the last 10 years by completing construction projects in-house, rather than hiring workers when possible
Roughly $1 million savings a year by developing online courses in-house
Steward said he and FHSU President Ed Hammond take a media tour across Kansas each year to discuss the strategies Fort Hays has utilized to lower operating costs.
“Part of the benefit of reducing our costs is seeing that students’ cost of going to school is considerably less,” Steward told Kansas Liberty. “President Hammond is always saying our university is like a business in that if you are needing more money, you can either charge more for what you do or you can serve more people, and we have tried to hold down on charging people more and have been very successful in growing.”
Bruce Shubert, associate vice president for finance and administration at K-State, said he thinks K-State has been efficient with its finances.
“We think that historically we have done all we could and continue to do so in terms of saving money on utility bills, with energy conservation, doing away with paper processes and continuing to make the administrative process as efficient as possible,” Shubert told Kansas Liberty.
Despite the large increases in operating costs, most universities did not experience similar increases in enrollment except for Fort Hays where enrollment increased by 50 percent between the fall of 2002 and the fall of 2007. Wichita State University experienced a 7 percent decrease in student enrollment.
The University of Kansas enrollment also declined with a .4 percent decrease. K-State had a small 2.4 percent increase in enrollment.
Although all of the six colleges have experienced a rise in tuition costs, when comparing tuition costs and student fees approved between academic year 2003 and academic year 2008 for the six universities, the University of Kansas comes in first for largest tuition increase with an 89.5 percent raise.
K-State’s tuition also saw a significant increase with an 81.1 percent change. Fort Hays had the lowest tuition increase in the last 5 years with a 44.1 percent increase.
Wichita State had the next lowest tuition changes with a 57.3 percent increase.
Emporia State and Pittsburg State were close behind with increases of 60 percent and 60.2 percent respectively.
“A deliberate decision was made at K-State in 2002 that in order to maintain and improve the quality of the degree and the value of the degree that we needed to invest some things and so there was a plan to increase tuition,” he said. “So there has been a substantial increase as a percentage but we don’t expect those tuition increases to continue.”
Shubert said that decreases in state aid over the years has also affected how K-State produces the adequate funding needed to pay for operation costs.
“We are not well funded so it’s a struggle for us to maintain our quality and meet our mission with the resources we have,” he said.
“State universities in Kansas have done a remarkable job of delivering excellence while remaining affordable in light of such challenging fiscal circumstances,” Kip Peterson, Director of Government Relations and Communications at the Kansas Board of Regents told Kansas Liberty.
“Tuition at our state’s universities remains considerably lower than the regional and national averages, and enrollments continue to increase," Peterson said in a statement. "This is remarkable given the fact that over the past 20 years state funding has decreased by $1,372 per student, state funding has fallen from nearly half to about a quarter of the universities’ total operating budgets, and overall state spending has grown at a rate of 89 percent while funding for state universities has grown by only 12 percent."
Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ spokesperson Nicole Corcoran, said Sebelius has made her own recommendations over the years for higher education.
“Kansas is blessed to be the home of world class research universities, four year colleges, community colleges and vocational and technical training schools, still too many Kansans find the doors of opportunity barred by rising tuition costs, room and board expenses, and textbook prices,” Sebelius said in her January 2008 State of the State address.
“My budget takes significant steps to make college more affordable. I am providing an additional $3 million in scholarship money to ensure that 2,000 more students can afford the opportunity to compete in our new innovation economy. There are also significant new state resources proposed for post-secondary education, to lower the costs for parents, students and Kansas families.”
