Tuition hikes blamed on salaries

Senate panel recommends limiting increases

NASHVILLE — A state Senate committee recommended approval Wednesday of a bill to freeze and then limit tuition increases at Tennessee’s public colleges and universities, but it still has several hurdles to jump before becoming law

The bill, which has not begun moving in the House, would freeze tuition and fees at current levels until the 2018-19 school year, and after that require full govern- ing-board approval for increases greater than 2 percent above the consumer price index. It also would institute a tuition freeze, starting with freshmen entering in 2018, in which each students’ tuition and mandatory fees would remain fixed at their freshman-year rates if they remain enrolled in school and graduate on time.

Its sponsor, Senate Education Committee Chairman Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, presented an unusual slide show that shifted blame for large tuition increases from the state legislature’s appro- priations to the campuses themselves for what she called “inflated” salaries and staffing levels. Gresham directed much of her ire at the University of Tennessee.

“Some have said tuition has gone up as enrollment has grown and the state has not kept up its end of the bargain. While this may be somewhat true, enrollment at UT Knoxville has fluctuated somewhat. UT Knoxville’s entire fiscal growth has been on the backs of our students,” she said.

Gresham and her charts said the UT System has 1,465 employees paid more than $100,000 per year and the Tennessee Board of Regents system has 945. Another slide compared salaries of the chief financial officers, chief information officers and general counsels of the UT and TBR with their counterparts in state government. She said those positions range from 14 to 37 percent more in higher education than in the State Capitol.

“So the salary inflation in these key positions is indicative of the salary inflation that is rampant globally throughout higher education in Tennessee,” Gresham said.

The UT System’s vice president for gover nment relations, Anthony Haynes, said he was surprised and “disappointed” with the presentation.

“If we have been given a better idea of what the presentation was, we could have prepared for it,” he said. “There continues to be a lack of understanding about the cause of tuition increases. Nobody has worked harder to keep tuition lower in Tennessee than UT. Last year’s tuition increase was the lowest in 20 years.”

Haynes said UT President Joe DiPietro hopes to make a presentation to the committee next week.

The committee voted 9-0 with little discussion to send the bill to the Senate Finance Committee.