The Wayne State University Board of Governors will hold its next regular meeting Wednesday, July 20, in Room BC at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 West Ferry Mall, in Detroit.

The Board of Governors committees convene at 9 a.m. and are open to the public. The board’s standing committee meetings begin with the Academic Affairs Committee at 9 a.m. and the Budget and Finance Committee at 9:45 a.m. Following a break, the board returns for a public session at 2 p.m.

The university’s proposed 2006 fiscal year budget, including tuition recommendations, will be among the agenda items to be discussed.
Under consideration are two optional proposals with each calling for tuition increases for all students; Option 1 calls for an 18.5 percent increase and Option 2 includes a 15.5 percent increase.

Also included in the proposed budgets are increases in financial aid. According to Wayne State University Provost and Senior Vice President Nancy Barrett, the administration is recommending a $6.6 million increase in student financial aid.

Wayne State has endured four consecutive years of state budget cuts with a cumulative amount of $33.8 million. At the same time the university has experienced enrollment growth of over 2,000 students and another increase is expected this fall. This year the governor’s budget recommends another cut of $3.8 million and the Legislature is considering an additional $10.7 million reduction. Legislation on state appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year is still pending; a final bill is not expected until possibly late September.

“The funding challenges Wayne State has faced during the last four years have been immense, yet we have exercised tuition restraint while maintaining our strong academic programs and services to students,” Barrett said. “The university needs additional funding to address the backlog of critical and pressing needs while reducing our dependency on the state budget allocation,” Barrett added.

Wayne State has addressed the cycle of declining state appropriations with significant cuts in staff operating costs and programs. “We have been serving many more students with fewer dollars – a trend that must not continue,” Barrett said.

The agenda for the meeting and documents to be reviewed may be accessed at the board’s Web site, www.bog.wayne.edu.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.