On Thursday, the University of Illinois released proposed tuition increases for all three campuses, which will await approval of the Board of Trustees on April 11, 2006.

The tuition increase would start July 1, 2006, and would increase $666 per year for Urbana-Champaign students who are either incoming freshmen or not covered by the guaranteed tuition program. This rise would be a 9.46 percent hike over the previous year’s tuition rate for new in-state students.

The tuition increase comes at a time when the University would only receive a 1.48 percent increase in state appropriations if the 2007 fiscal year Illinois state budget is approved by the legislature. Even if the budget is approved, the University would receive state funding that is below 2003 fiscal year levels, with no increase in support for inflation.

University President B. Joseph White said the tuition increase would attempt to get the University back to a resource level that it had during the 2002 fiscal year.

“In regards to academic quality, . it means retaining key faculty that our students depend on,” White said.

“It means hiring more teachers, offering more classes and making sure there’s course availabilities so our students can graduate on time.”

If the Board approves the tuition increase, tuition will go up $586 per academic year at the Chicago campus and $1,000 at the Springfield campus for incoming freshmen or students not covered by the guaranteed tuition program.

The guaranteed tuition program was signed into law in July 2003 to ensure that the cost of tuition would not rise for new undergraduate students for four years in Illinois public universities. The law does not cover housing costs and fees.

In addition to a tuition increase, White said fees will increase three to four percent to recover inflationary costs, and room and board rates will have a similar increase.

Students will also see another fee on their bill, the Academic Facilities Maintenance Fund Assessment, pending Board approval. The $500 per year fee at both the Urbana-Champaign and Chicago campuses will be used to combat the University’s $800 million deferred maintenance problem in conjunction with state support. The Springfield campus students will have a $250 per year fee for the fund.

The state has not provided the University with a capital appropriations budget for the past four years, and White said the problem has been accumulating over time and is now headed to the point of no return unless it is remedied.

“The problem is that we’re spending half of what we need to spend, which is why it’s getting bigger,” White said. “We’re counting on the state over the course of the next 10 years to provide 15 percent of the total we need to spend. Even though, frankly, we have no idea if they will.”