Equalizing Funding Could Save Thousands in Tuition for Students and Their Families
Springfield, IL– U of I’s Urbana campus (UIUC) students and their families are subsidizing tuition for students at the Chicago Campus (UIC), according to simple calculations using the U of I’s own data regarding their internal allocation of state taxpayer funds. This is according to State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet), who recently grilled University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen about the issue when he testified during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. Rose specifically questioned the President about his choice to send more state taxpayer money to the UIC campus on a per student basis than to the Urbana campus.
Of the University’s current state general revenue fund allocation (i.e. income and sales taxes collected from the citizens of Illinois), the University of Illinois is internally allocating $10,073 per undergraduate student to the UIC campus, but only sending $7,483 per undergrad to the UIUC campus – a difference of $2,590 per undergrad student. The numbers only get worse, however, when you add in other students beyond undergrads and perform the same calculation for each campus using “full–time equivalent” (“FTE”) students as the metric. UIC receives $7,551 per FTE, whereas, UIUC gets $4,822 per FTE, a difference of $2,729 per FTE.
“Why are the students at UIUC subsidizing students at the Chicago campus?” asked Sen. Rose of Pres. Killeen at the hearing.
It is clear from the data that state taxpayer’s resources are not being distributed equitably between UIUC and UIC. This inequitable distribution has a direct impact on the cost of tuition that students and their families at UIUC pay.
“In fact, if you just equalized these tax dollars between the campuses, you could lower undergraduate students’ tuition at UIUC by roughly $1,000 per student, per year, or $900 per FTE, per year – saving thousands over the course of a 4 or 5 years stint on campus,” noted Rose. “That’s a lot of money to a single mom trying to send her kid to the U of I. Pres. Killeen should be ashamed of adding to the burden of students and their families,” Rose Concluded.
After initially disagreeing with Sen. Rose, University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen finally admitted that the discrepancy was something that the University should look into. “I think it is on us to take a look at that,” he commented.
“It is past time for the University of Illinois system to do right by the students and their families paying tuition at the Urbana campus. If the university truly believes in “equity” than Urbana students shouldn’t have their tuition go up to underwrite the Chicago campus. Where is the equity in that?” Rose concluded.