Daniels: Freeze Purdue tuition for fourth year

For Purdue University students, staff and faculty, it could be good news and more good news.

The Board of Trustees this week will decide whether to endorse a tuition freeze for the fourth straight year alongside a 3.5 percent merit pay increase for employees at the West Lafayette campus, President Mitch Daniels told the Journal & Courier in an interview Wednesday.

To top it off, trustees will discuss an increase in entry-level wages to $10 per hour for full-time clerical and service staff. Anyone currently under that threshold will be bumped up, Daniels said.

It could be a long-awaited raise, lobbied for in the past year by the University Senate but blemished by the university’s attempts to reduce health and paid time off benefits.

The senate also questioned whether another tuition freeze can be sustainably paired with pay raises. Daniels said the budget is proof — at least for now — that it’s possible.

“I think this budget reflects it,” Daniels said.

Purdue is wrapping up its second year of the tuition freeze. The board last year endorsed freezing tuition for the 2015-2016 school year and is expected to approve an extension into a fourth year, or 2016-2017. The Journal & Courier previously reported that the first two years of the tuition freeze cost about $40 million to implement.

Final approval of the third- and fourth-year freezes is scheduled for the May 27 trustees meeting, where the board will vote on the university’s two-year budget.

Under the tuition freeze, Indiana residents pay $10,002, out-of-state students pay $28,804 and international students pay $30,804.

An informal survey by Purdue found the mean tuition increase among Big Ten universities was 1.43 percent, with highest hike — 5 percent — coming from the University of Maryland, said Julie Rosa, assistant vice president of strategic communications.

Using the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s recommended 1.65 percent increase for the next academic school year, in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition at Purdue would rise to about $10,165 and $29,279, respectively, if no freeze is implemented.

Daniels said the faculty and staff raises will cost about $20 million.

“To our knowledge — and we’ve checked around — this will be the biggest raise in our peer group, and, in most cases, by a clear margin.”

Rosa said salary increases among peer institutions range from 0 percent to 3.5 percent, with Purdue’s being the highest. She noted many colleges have yet to release tuition and budget information.

Last year, Indiana University’s Board of Trustees approved a 2 percent increase in pay for faculty, according to the university’s website.

Students vs. faculty

Purdue’s budgetary priorities haven’t ever been “students versus faculty,” Daniels noted.

“We need to do really well by both. ... Those are our core assignments here: excellence in teaching and research (and) accessibility and affordability for students,” he said. “And we serve them both by being very, very careful about anything that’s not inside one of those two circles.”

Under the new budget, the president, deans, executive vice presidents, vice presidents, vice provosts and other officers of equivalent level will forgo a merit increase. In addition, Daniels said the number of faculty positions are up, while administrative positions are down.

But he wants to leave it up to colleges to decide where they can save in three specific areas: reducing administrative bloat, better utilizing existing facilities and rewarding employees based on their performance, not tenure.

But there’s the sticking point: A portion of the raise — 0.5 percent — is conditional upon each college’s efforts to implement those cost-saving measures. If a college doesn’t participate, its percentage is distributed among those who do.

“These are just common goals,” Daniels said, “and we’re trying to provide a positive incentive to do more than might happen naturally.”

Can the university continue to incentivize cost-cutting while maintaining a quality education? Daniels said that’s been the goal all along.

“It’ll be our goal every year,” he said. “Can we do 3.5 (percent raises) year after year? Maybe not. Can we do zero (tuition increases) year after year? Maybe not. But these will always be our priorities, and we’ll do as much as we can on both ends.”

By the numbers

0%

increase in Purdue University tuition for a fourth straight year

3.5%

increase in employee pay at the West Lafayette campus

$10

new entry-level pay for full-time clerical and service staff