The Board of Regents approved a new and more severe tuition increase plan that was first announced earlier this week at their meeting Thursday in the Holmes Student Center.

The tuition increase is being implemented through a per credit hour charge which will charge students for every hour over 12 and up to 16. This means the tuition of students taking a 15 credit hour load, which is needed to graduate in four years, will rise 13.6 percent for the 1993-1994 school year. However, tuition increases for students taking 13 credit hours both semesters will be 4.8 percent.

The credit hour plan was originally to be phased in over a three-year period. However, the Regents approved condensing the last two years of the plan into one. This will result in a higher tuition increase than was originally planned.

NIU President John La Tourette said the change was needed because Gov. Jim Edgar did not increase funding for higher education as much as the Illinois Board of Higher Education had recommended in January.

Higher education did receive a 2.3 percent increase in general funds in Edgar’s budget recommendation. The IBHE had recommended a 6.4 percent increase for higher education in January.

La Tourette and the Regents blame the lowered increase in

eneral funding for a budget shortage that they claim necessitates the stepped-up tuition increase.

La Tourette said the idea for next year’s additional tuition increase was first discussed in January when the IBHE made their budget recommendation.

“I think it has been discussed off and on since about January as it became more and more clear that the governor wouldn’t support the IBHE recommendation,” La Tourette said.

Student Regent John Butler said he first found out about the changing of the tuition increase schedule Tuesday night. Butler said he was disappointed students had not been informed of the tuition increase sooner.

“I think on many occasions the information could have been passed along to us,” Butler said.

He also said he expected an actual vote on tuition to occur at an April meeting of the Regents. A schedule of meeting discussion items approved at a December Regents meeting said tuition and student fees would be discussed in April.

An agenda for the Thursday meeting described a report on tuition as an information item. However, the report did say action would be taken on tuition at Thursday’s meeting. The report was released late last week.

Regents Chancellor Roderick Groves said next year’s tuition increase was designed with students seeking financial assistance in mind and would “hold them harmless.” Groves said the financial aid those students receive would increase proportionately with the rising tuition.

“If a student is paying 50 percent of their costs, they’re getting 50 percent of them picked up on financial aid. The same ratio would carry through on the increased tuition charges,” Groves said.

However, Groves said students on financial aid would have to pay increased costs that will rise at the same percentage as those not receiving aid.

Groves said during the meeting that a portion of the new funds generated by the increase will go to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC). Groves said the percentage of the extra funds will be between 22 and 29 percent. Those funds will then go to students demonstrating need for financial assistance.

According to La Tourette, next year’s tuition increase might generate about $3.2 million in additional tuition. Between 22 and 29 percent of that figure will go to ISAC.