With state dollars coming up short in this year's Legislature, college students statewide are picking up the slack to pay for needed faculty and programs.

University of Utah leaders voted Monday to increase tuition by nearly 10 percent, an unexpectedly high amount in a year of budget surplus.

"This year they kind of got down to the wire and most of what we asked for — besides fuel and power — did not get funded," said Paul Brinkman, vice president for budgeting. "We're caught in kind of a dilemma. We've got to defend the quality of the university."

Although the Board of Regents will officially approve tuition increases at all 10 state institutions Friday, Brinkman said the U.'s 10 percent hike will likely stand for the 2006-07 school year.

That increase includes a school-specific increase of 5.45 percent and a systemwide increase that officials are estimating at approximately 4 percent to pay for compensation. The regents will also finalize that number Friday.

All of Utah's universities and colleges are bracing for tuition hikes this year, ranging from a low at Salt Lake Community College of up to 1 percent to a high at Dixie State College, where some students will see a 30 percent increase.

The sizable increase at Dixie is due, in large part, to a shift in tuition structure that will require freshmen and sophomores to pay the same yearly rate as juniors and seniors — $2,100.

The U.'s increase is slightly higher than last year's roughly 9 percent hike, a disappointing outcome in a year of surplus money and high hopes for education, Brinkman said.

After three years of deficits, Brinkman said university leaders across the state were expecting more out of the state budget.

"We got money to keep the doors open basically, but not to improve the quality of education," Brinkman said.

Perhaps the biggest hole in legislative funding was retention funds for key faculty — the top priority for the higher education system — and a $5 million student success initiative to increase advisers and to relieve bottleneck courses.

"It hurts, but if it keeps the faculty here, you have to do it," U. senior Paul Wennerstrom said at a truth-in-tuition hearing for U. students. "This is what the state Legislature gave us."

At SLCC, officials decided some programs will have to suffer instead of shifting the budget burden to students, said Deneece Huftalin, vice president for student services.

Money for new faculty and advisers that didn't come through in the Legislature means the school will have to scale back, she said.

"We were much more hopeful that we would get more from the Legislature to help offset some personnel needs," Huftalin said. "We'll probably do without some critical needs. That's a big disappointment to us."

Along with the tuition hike, the U. Board of Trustees also approved Monday a change in tuition for upper-level students in the business school. Under the new plan, those students will pay a higher tuition rate for their degrees.

The 2009 graduates will pay about $2,100 more for their degrees than other university students.

---

E-mail: estewart@desnews.com