The University will announce a proposal this morning to increase next year's tuition by 8 percent at all three campuses.

If the proposed tuition increase is approved, current undergraduate students would pay an extra $223 each semester beginning next fall, raising the tuition for students who are Illinois residents to $3,007. The 8 percent increase is slightly higher than last year's 5 percent increase.

Provost Richard Herman said the proposed increase would help make up for a lack of state funding in past years.

"The tuition increases have not made up for the decline in state funding over the past 25 years," Herman said. "We need alternative funding sources, so we've asked the students to help."

He said state funding has decreased from about 40 percent to about 21 percent over the past 25 years.

Herman said the University looked at its needs and its cuts over the past two years, such as cuts in salary increases, funding, courses offered, discussion sections and faculty.

University President James Stukel said, in a University press release, that the added tuition revenue would help restore 480 courses as well as some 120 faculty and instructor positions and 160 teaching assistants. The estimates include all three campuses.

"I think it's probably a good thing," said Kim Edgerton, a junior in business. "It sucks for us, but it's actually pretty reasonable compared to other schools."

Herman said tuition has increased at an overall constant rate since 1990. If calculated in constant dollars, he said the increases average $300 per year, $150 per semester, $10 per week, or "roughly four cups of coffee per week."

"The cost of higher education has increased faster than the Consumer Price Index," Herman said. "So, we've actually done a very good job of controlling costs at this University."

The University worked with faculty members, deans and the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee to determine the proposed increase.

Nine undergraduate and three graduate and professional students serve on the committee and advise the provost about tuition policy. After discussing the proposed increase with one another, students chosen at random, faculty and administrators, the committee endorsed the proposed increase plan.

Joe Kaylen, committee member and a senior in business, said the committee focused on certain University needs such as library funding and faculty retention while weighing the benefits of a tuition increase.

"This tuition increase won't make us competitive," Kaylen said. "But it will keep us from falling further behind in salary competitiveness."

The Urbana-Champaign campus currently is ranked 20th out of 21 schools as far as salary competitiveness in its Illinois Board of Higher Education peer group. The University hopes to improve its salary ranking by one or two positions with revenue from the tuition increase.

Herman said individual colleges can request different increases, called differentials, than the proposed 8 percent increase. Herman said the only college to ask for a differential for next year's proposed increase has been the College of LAS, which has asked for a differential for biology and chemistry majors. With the differential, continuing students would pay a tuition increase of $250 per semester.

Haley Loy, a junior in ACES, said students should not have to pay different tuition rates throughout their University education.

"When you enter the University, what you pay the first semester is what you should pay every semester," she said. "That is what you and your family budgets around."

Although Loy will not get to pay a fixed rate, future University students might receive such a plan. The University will also announce a new fixed tuition plan this morning, called the University of Illinois Guaranteed Tuition Plan. If approved, the plan would give students a set tuition for four years. The plan was implemented by the Joyce Bill, which requires Illinois universities and colleges to give incoming freshmen a fixed tuition rate for their undergraduate education, and would apply to incoming freshmen beginning in fall 2004.

Herman said the University will make a one-time adjustment in the current base tuition at each campus to cover growing educational costs such as salary increases and costs of supplies.

"This is a tuition guarantee," Herman said. "The family will know exactly what it has to set aside and can plan for it."

The fixed tuition would require students to pay an extra $446, or a 7.4 percent increase from current tuition for continuing students, according to the press release. The fixed tuition would be $3,230 per semester at the Urbana-Champaign campus, but Herman said the figure assumes no further state funding cuts.

The University Board of Trustees is scheduled to review the proposed increase and new fixed tuition plan at its meeting on Thursday. Board members will either approve each of the two plans or decide to wait until the next meeting to make a decision. If the board members approve either or both of the plans, the Illinois Board of Higher Education will review them and, if approved, will send the plans to Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a final review and decision.

Herman said he did not know whether the University board would approve the plans, but he said he felt confident the board understood the University's reasoning for the proposals.