jwichman@k-state.edu

K-State President Comments on Legislative Session 

So far, so good! That’s the reaction Kansas State University president Kirk Schulz has to the early stages of the 2016 Kansas legislative session.

At this point, funding for the university – which is now on a two year cycle with the legislature – is expected to remain flat. Schulz sees that as a double-edged sword…

“We’ve been largely protected from some of the major cuts that some of the other agencies have had out there, but it’s also the area of diminishing return, right? If everything has been flat for the last several years, that makes it hard for us to do salary increases and some of the other things that we need to do.”

Over the last seven years, Schulz has seen state support for Kansas State University fall from around 185 million dollars a year to below 150 million dollars. The result has been higher tuition and fees.

“If I just go back and look, since post-recession time, almost everywhere across the country has been flat or downward in terms of state support, and tuition has gone up dramatically on a percentage basis, which has hurt some family’s ability to send children to get a higher education experience in the state of Kansas.”

Schulz said students can expect to see another tuition increase in the fall. Although there hasn’t been an official recommendation from the committee, he expects the increase to be about three-to-three-and-a-half percent….along with an increase in some student fees.