Proposed Budget for 2012-2013 includes salary increases, tuition raises

Michael McKay

The 2012-2013 fiscal year budget was laid out to the Board of Regents at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Friday.

The total operating budget is set for $388 million, with $178 million going toward personnel costs and almost $78 million toward student aid. 

In April, the Council on Postsecondary Education approved a 5 percent increase on resident undergraduate tuition and fees for the next fiscal year. The proposed budget includes an increase to tuition and fees.

If the budget passes, student tuition will be increased to $4,236, up $194 from last year.

A new provision was also included to charge an online learning tuition fee to all students taking an online class. The charge would be 20 percent of the regular tuition rate per credit hour that in the past has only applied to part-time students.

Besides increases in tuition and fees, a proposed 2 percent salary increase for faculty and staff is present in the budget.

The increase would apply to all faculty and staff employed from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012, which will total to a cost of $2 million. The increase would be contingent on a “satisfactory performance appraisal and continuing employment,” according to the budget.

In an email to faculty and staff, WKU President Gary Ransdell thanked the Administrative Council and Deans for working on a budget that didn’t include employee layoffs, furloughs or hiring freezes. 

The Regents are set to approve the budget at a Special Budget Approval Meeting and Committees on June 22.