NIU students planning to return next fall will find their tuition bills $86 higher if Board of Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves’ proposal to hike tuition passes.

The current freeze—tuition has remained stagnant for two years—is likely to thaw by the outset of the fall 1991 semester. The reason, Groves said, is for tuition to catch up with advancing inflation rates.

“This is a major deficit situation we’ve inherited,” Groves said. “We’ve been living with it, but we’re taking it out of our hide.”

The three Regency schools—NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State Universty in Springfield—are losing ground on the inflation rate, Groves said. Last year, state funding for higher education increased only 1.8 percent while the inflation rate jumped as high as 6 percent, he explained.

“There’s a shortfall between resources and what’s needed.”

So far, the board has covered the cost of faculty salary increases and purchases of new equipment like library books, but it “can’t continue” without increased revenue, Groves said.

The Regency system also asked the state for a “substantial increase in funds” last year although the state’s economy also is stagnant: “We’re focusing on a balanced revenue approach,” Groves said.

In addition, hiking tuition is consistent with Illinois Board of Higher Education policy, which dictates that tuition should be adjusted long-term with inflation, he said.

The issue will come up at the Regents’ September meeting, which is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at ISU. However, no action will be taken because budgets are decided during the spring, Groves added.

Groves wants the Regents to endorse the idea and put it in the back of their minds for consideration in April, when tuition proposals come before them.

The Fiscal Year 1992 increase is estimated at 10 percent, which would push current tuition from $857 to $943 for in-state students. The increase would net about $7 million for the Regency schools, with about $3.5 or $4 million coming to DeKalb.

When considering the proposal, Groves said the Regents will take into account suggestions made at last week’s Joint Committee on College Tuition hearings held at NIU. The proposals then will be sent to the IBHE. “How they’ll balance it, I don’t know,” he said.

Groves’ figures assume the state will foot some of the bill to support education. If the needed support isn’t available, Groves’ proposal contains a back door that would pump student bills even bigger by further raising tuition.

“We must consider the state. They factor into this,” Groves said. “(The state) will have to affect the ultimate decision.”

Despite Groves’ claims of economic necessity, NIU Student Regent James Mertes said he thinks the plan to raise tuition is just a way to get more state funding.

“It gives me concern,” Mertes said. Groves is saying either the state give schools more money or tuition needs to increase, Mertes said.

Groves is failing to see areas where the Regents could trim excess spending, Mertes said. Also, he said there was supposed to be an investigation into alternative methods of funding.

However, Groves said the Regency system has the lowest level of funding in the state, which indicates its efficiency. “We have cost-effective efforts and efficient administration,” he said.

Efficient or not, one NIU student was upset to hear the news.

Junior Sandra Overmyer, 19, started a petition drive Friday to combat tuition hikes. Overmyer, who transferred to NIU from North Central College in Naperville, said she left the private school because tuition had grown too high.

Now, Overmyer said, she might consider a second transfer if Groves’ plan goes through.

“They’d better listen to us,” she said. “(We need to show them) NIU really cares. We’re not apathetic.”

Overmyer, who sought the help of the NIU Student Association to begin her petition, said she hopes to collect at least 3,000 signatures to send to state legislators.