Eastern’s tuition is going to increase in the fall.

A tuition increase will happen for incoming freshmen, transfer and graduate students for Fall 2008 after Gov. Rod Blagojevich recommended no increase for higher education in his proposed budget for the 2009 fiscal year, President Bill Perry said.

Perry said he did know how large the increase would be because other budget factors are still being analyzed like utility costs.

“It wasn’t unanticipated,” Perry said of Blagojevich’s recommendation. “I know the issues the Governor has to deal with regard to budgets so it wasn’t unanticipated.”

Eastern and the other Illinois public universities received a 1.9 percent increase for 2008. Eastern’s state appropriation with that 2008 increase was around $49 million. If Blagojevich’s recommendations go through, Eastern’s state appropriation will stay around the 2008 figure.

Perry said Blagojevich’s recommendation is an initial proposal, and the General Assembly has to deliberate and approve a budget for 2009 as well.

He added, however, the Board of Trustees would approve the Fall 2008 tuition rates in April – well before the General Assembly makes its own recommendations for the budget.

“If in fact, we found out after the fact that we had a large appropriation from the state, we would try to factor that into the affordability issue for the students,” Perry said.

With Blagojevich’s 0 percent recommendation, Perry said Eastern would have to wait and see if university purchases would be held back.

“Right now, I can’t say that whether we are going to do any particular thing or not, but we know that we are going to meet all of our contractual obligations,” he said. “That is for sure.”

Blagojevich’s recommendation also aligns with option one of the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s budget recommendations, which were approved at its Feb. 5 meeting.

Perry said he ideally would like to see IBHE’s option four or five approved.

The options include a 5.6 percent increase and a 6.7 increase in state appropriations, respectively.

“Certainly, from my perspective, more of a general revenue increase would be positive for the state,” he said. “It would be positive for the university because then we would be able to take some of the pressure off the tuition increases.”

He added he knows the General Assembly values higher education.

“I believe, if there is anyway they can help out higher education, they will do it,” Perry said.

As for the capital money section of Blagojevich’s budget proposal, Perry said there is around $30 million set aside for Eastern.

The $30 million, if approved, would go towards Eastern’s new co-generation steam plant that is dependent upon capital money for completion. The money would also be used to fund Doudna Fine Arts Center equipment and various capital renewal projects.

“If that is finally approved in the budget, then that would help us out a lot,” Perry said.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.