Caret, Patrick at odds over proposed UMass fee increase
University Massachusetts President Robert Caret on Tuesday proposed raising student fees on UMass campuses by 4.9 percent, but Governor Deval Patrick opposes the increase and says it would squeeze students already struggling to pay for college.
Under the proposal, in-state students at the four undergraduate UMass campuses would pay about $580 more per year, and the total cost of attending would rise from $11,901 to $12,481.
Caret said he regretted raising fees but found the move necessary in an era of weak state funding.
“We need to have a certain critical mass of dollars to educate our students and run our operations,’’ he said. “The state keeps cutting us, and we just can’t keep up.’’
Patrick, however, believes the proposal would burden Massachusetts families.
In a letter to Caret on Tuesday, he wrote, “I am not convinced that UMass has yet done enough to find efficiencies and reduce costs so that any new revenue is dedicated to teaching and learning.’’
The proposed fee increase would track with the university’s overall trend. UMass has raised fees 10 times in the last decade, including by 7.5 percent last year.
Caret’s proposed fee increase would be smaller than those at other public schools, including many of Massachusetts’ state universities outside the UMass system and several UMass peer institutions. The University of New Hampshire, for example, raised fees 12.5 percent this year.
Patrick’s proposed budget for next year includes $455 million for the UMass system, 6 percent more than the current year’s budget.
But that boost could be offset by rising operational costs at UMass, which is trying to pay off $63 million in new union contract obligations and debt service alone, university officials said.
The proposed fee increase – which applies to all undergraduate and most graduate students — would generate $25 million in net additional revenue, according to the university.
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