Tuition Hikes, Service Cuts Likely at State Colleges

 

The Record

Patricia Alex

March 17, 2010

 

The state's public colleges and universities, already among the most expensive in the nation, will absorb $175 million in cuts under Governor Christie's proposed budget, likely prompting more tuition hikes and service cuts.

 

"We're not surprised by tuition increases," said Thomas Little of Haledon, a junior at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.  "Nobody likes it but we understand why."

 

Bergen Community College reduced its budget by 10 percent this year in anticipation of the cuts, said President Jerry Ryan.  He said he hoped some of the revenue would be made up by increased enrollment.  He was upset, however, by the plan to suspend the NJ STARS program, which provided free community college for those in the top 15 percent of their high school graduating class.

 

"That's probably the most depressing cut, and probably the one we're going to fight the hardest," said Ryan.

 

The higher education cuts would mean that funding for schools would essentially return to 1997 levels, said Paul Shelly, spokesman for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities.  He said the governor's budget did not fund Thomas Edison State College and it was believed the school would be absorbed by Rutgers University.