With tuition increases causing frustration for parents, students and educators across the state, the Illinois Board of Higher Education is launching a new initiative aimed to stem the tide of rising education costs.

The newly formed Committee on Affordability is in the process of conducting a review of college education costs in Illinois. The committee assesses the changes that have taken place in affordability over the years.

The committee also looks at who those changes have affected the most, and what actions can be taken at the state and institutional levels to make college more affordable.

Dan Layzell, the IBHE’s deputy director for planning and budgeting, said the motivation for the initiative came from trends the board noticed.

“During the past year, the Board of Higher Education had been presented with various reports related to affordability,” he said. “They pointed out some trends of concern, especially the increase of tuition across the state and the increasing concern of load burden in Illinois. It’s been over eight years since we last took a comprehensive look at the issue of affordability, and so much has changed since then. I think the general feeling was to take another look at the issue.”

According to IBHE figures, tuition has increased more than 6 percent annually over the last decade. However, Layzell doesn’t think there’s trouble looming.

“I would not say there is a crisis,” he said. “There are some trends that are concerning that led to the establishment of this committee. Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve so there is no crisis.”

Tuition has increased because of a decrease in funding from the state to universities, said Virginia Cassidy, associate vice provost of academic planning and development at NIU.

“I think this commission was created as a result of the larger tuition increases in the state this year,” she said. “One of the things that has happened is that the amount of funding that comes from the state to the university has decreased over time. So there have to be different ways of bringing revenue into the budget, and tuition is unfortunately one of those ways.”

Layzell said it’s too early to tell what recommendations the committee might ultimately make.

“The committee is very early in its deliberations and it would be premature to say where we end up,” he said. “We are still in the gathering information stage.”

Cassidy thinks changes must be made.

“One of the things that could possibly happen is that there could be more private money involved,” she said. “For example, more scholarships could be made available to help students pay for tuition, or private foundations could provide support for institutions.”

The IBHE launched another initiative recently, aimed at studying faculty diversity. The initiative concentrates on the pools of potential graduate students currently available, hiring practices at universities and retention of faculty at schools.

“I think that faculty diversity is certainly a priority,” Cassidy said. “Part of the problem of trying to diversify the faculty is that the diversity of the pool of available candidates is so small. We need long-term solutions. It takes more than 20 years of education to go from kindergarten to a doctoral degree. It is really important to make sure all students who are capable of pursuing graduate degrees have that opportunity.”