Office of the President

Speeches & Reports

Message from Texas A&M President Dr. Elsa A. Murano and Student Body President Conner Prochaska regarding proposed tuition for the upcoming academic year - 2/25/2008

President Murano: Howdy! And thank you for joining me for a brief update regarding Texas A&M University’s proposed tuition for the upcoming academic year. Here with me is Conner Prochaska, Student Body President for Texas A&M.

President Prochaska: Howdy! And thank you, Dr. Murano, for this opportunity to share some good news with my fellow Aggie students.

President Murano: Several weeks ago, Conner and I hosted a public hearing to discuss the need for tuition and fee increases beginning in the fall semester. At this hearing, I outlined that Texas A&M's total new fiscal year 2009 base budget needs, which begin in the Fall semester, totaled $24.7 million. My administration calculated that to cover these needed costs, we would have to raise your tuition by $20 per semester credit hour. However, as I stated at the hearing, I considered this amount too much of a burden to place upon you, our students. So, I asked our financial team to sharpen their pencils and reduce this proposed tuition increase as much as possible. As those of you who attended the hearing learned, the end result was a proposed increase in the range of $10-$16 per semester credit hour.

At the hearing, I pledged to keep the increase as low as possible, towards the $10 per semester credit hour end of this range. Since then, our administration has continued to look for ways to decrease it even further. We were able to realize some additional costs savings and defer some funding needs to fiscal year 2010, when we hope to obtain some additional Legislative support. I'm here to report to you some very good news: that through this process we were able to reduce the proposed tuition increase even further than originally expected. We have reduced the increase such that instead of $20 per semester credit hour, or $16 per semester credit hour, or even $10 per semester credit hour, tuition will only be increased by $7.25 per semester credit hour. This represents an overall percentage increase for tuition and fees, not including the MSC refurbishment fee, of 4.99% - the lowest here at Texas A&M since at least fiscal year 1999.

President Prochaska: While no one likes increased costs, whether it's gas for our cars or higher rent for an apartment, this is definitely good news in comparison to where we started. We appreciate the administration's extra efforts to make the proposed increase in tuition the lowest it has been in nearly a decade. I think we can all agree that in order to maintain academic excellence, Texas A&M will not likely ever be the cheapest in the state, but we definitely want Texas A&M to be the best overall value. I think that's the case.

President Murano: Please be assured that I am committed to keeping tuition and fees as low as possible, but this task is becoming harder and harder as the percentage of our legislative appropriations continues to decline. I consider the efforts to keep the tuition increase to only $7.25 per semester credit hour for the upcoming academic year to be extraordinary, especially considering that this is the second year of a legislative biennium, meaning that our state appropriations are the same as last year’s, even though the cost of doing business has increased.

As Conner often says, Texas A&M is a tremendous value. Our job is to develop you into leaders of character, well educated in your field, and prepared to serve the greater good. The fact that we do this while keeping your education affordable is a testament to our commitment to our land-grant mission. Thanks for listening, have a great week, and Gig 'Em!