New freshmen at any Illinois state university will have an easier time to plan ahead for their college career, at least in terms of tuition, starting summer 2004.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the “truth in tuition” law July 22, which states that first-year students will be locked into the same fixed rate for four continuous academic years.

Kenneth Zehnder, assistant executive director of the Office of State and Federal Relations, said NIU worked with state representatives for the bill.

“As it worked out, the bill will estimate [tuition] for a four-year period, or in some cases, a five-year period, and give predictability for parents and students,” he said.

Senator Brad Burzynski, representative of the 35th district, co-sponsored the bill.

He said incoming freshmen will be required to sign a contract to meet certain criteria in order for the fixed tuition to stay in place.

For example, if a freshman starts out, and in two or three years decides to change majors, and in turn will stay at the university longer, the university has the right to raise tuition for that student.

“It gives responsibility to the university and the student,” Burzynski said.

The main reason for the bill is so that families of university students will be able plan better.

“Families will be able to sit down and outline their budgets for more than a year at a time,” Burzynski said. “It also encourages students to able to obtain a bachelor’s degree in a four-year period.”

The bill does not, however, touch upon how tuition rates will be placed upon transfer students.

State Representative David Wirsing said the one option would be for both universities, NIU and whichever college the student is transferring from, to set a tuition rate.

The most logical option, Wirsing said, is for students to have the tuition rate of whatever year they are. For example, if the transfer student is a junior, their tuition rate would be the same rate as other juniors.

Kathryn Buettner, associate vice president and executive director of the Office of State and Federal Relations, said specifics for transfer students and other special circumstances will be debated over the next couple of months.

One concern the university has is not knowing the amount of money it’ll receive from the state.

Buettner said NIU hasn’t received any new state money, but has lost some.

“We’ve done a lot of realignments to maintain quality, but on the same point, you have to raise tuition,” she said.

Melanie Magara, assistant vice president for Public Affairs, said the average tuition increase from 1994 to 2003 was 4.2 percent. For several of those years, there was a 2 to 3 percent increase.

NIU has 2,000 more students now than in fiscal year 2000 and at the same time, lost nearly $30 million in state funding, she said.

According to Dan Layzell, deputy director for Planning and Budgeting for the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the most recent actual state subsidy number is $5,525 from fiscal ’02. That is the amount the state contributes to each student enrolled in the university.

Buettner said when the state can’t increase its contribution, like in the past fiscal years, the tuition side makes up the difference.

“It’s unknown what’s going to happen, it all depends on the economy,” she said. “If the economy rebounds, more revenue. Either way, we’ll honor those commitments.”

Sociology professor Herbert Rubin said the bill comes with a lot of uncertainty.

“It’s a wonderful idea for the university in theory,” he said. “This year, we lost a lot of money from the state. If that should happen while people have fixed tuition, the only thing to be done is to cut faculty.”

Zehnder said that is part of what the Board of Trustees will look at when it determines tuition rates.

The fixed tuition rates will only apply to public universities.

Blagojevich also signed a law that requires universities to make appropriations in specific line items rather than in large lumps.

This bill means that universities have to be specific in how they spend state allocated money.

Zehnder said NIU’s budget reports were always broken down when it was submitted to the General Assembly.

Buettner said it was four or five years ago the Illinois Senate thought lump sums would be better and adopted that process. No legislation was passed.

“It’s not going to make a huge difference,” she said. “[With lump sum] requirements have been stringent.”