The State System of Higher Education will receive a state appropriation of nearly $425 million next year as part of the 1998-99 budget passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Tom Ridge.

The early passage of the state budget will allow the System’s Board of Governors to meet next month to consider the 1998-99 tuition rate for students who attend any of the 14 state-owned universities. The special meeting will be held May 14 at the Dixon University Center.

The Board, which usually doesn’t consider tuition until its regular July meeting, has been working toward a goal of not raising tuition next year. The tuition rate this year for Pennsylvania residents was $3,468 for two semesters.

The Board a year ago raised tuition by only $100, the lowest dollar increase since 1990-91. The last time tuition did not go up at the state-owned universities was 1983-84.

The $424.9 million educational and general appropriation included in the new state budget represents a more than $20 million increase for the System over the current year’s base funding total, a boost of nearly 5 percent. The System had requested a ’98-’99 appropriation of $435 million to help pay to operate the state-owned universities in the next fiscal year.

“We are grateful to the governor and to the General Assembly for their continued support of the State System,” said Board of Governors Chairman F. Eugene Dixon, Jr. “The increased funding from the state will be utilized to help our institutions continue to offer the highest quality education possible at an affordable cost.”

With the state budget in place, System officials will begin finalizing a 1998-99 spending plan. The Board of Governors last October proposed an operating budget for the next fiscal year of $882.9 million, with revenues to be divided almost equally between state funding and student tuition. That budget would represent an overall spending increase of 3.9 percent. Over the last decade, the System has kept its overall spending growth to just above the rate of inflation.

“The Board has been responsive to the concerns of many families over the rising cost of higher education,” said Dixon. “We are committed to doing all that we can to keep our costs down and to making certain our universities are operating as efficiently as possible through a program of continuous improvement.

“We will do our part to keep tuition affordable, while making certain that our programs remain of the highest quality.”

The budget approved by the Legislature also contains several special appropriations, including about $1.5 million for social equity programs, designed to help recruit and retain minority and under-represented students, and $211,000 for the operation of the McKeever Environmental Learning Center. Both amounts represent slight increases over current totals.

In addition, the budget includes $7 million for all of higher education in the final year of Gov. Ridge’s three-year “Link-to-Learn” program and another $6 million for equipment purchases. The System also will receive an estimated $7 million for deferred maintenance through the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund.

“This budget will help us to maintain the wide array of programs offered on our campuses,” said System Chancellor James H. McCormick. “It also will challenge us to become even more efficient in the delivery of our product – a quality higher education – to our students.

“We will have to work even harder in the future if we are to be able to continue to develop the types of courses and programs necessary to meet the changing educational needs of Pennsylvania’s economy.”

The System, under the direction of the Board of Governors, recently embarked on a “systemic change” initiative designed to further improve both the quality and cost-effectiveness of its institutions. Various work groups will spend the next several months developing plans that eventually could result not only in both programmatic and operational changes, but possible cost savings, as well.

The State System of Higher Education comprises 14 universities throughout the Commonwealth, and is the largest provider of higher education in the state. One of every 29 Pennsylvanians is attending or is a graduate of a System university. The State System is the 17^th largest employer in the state, with more than 11,700 employees.

The 14 state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers.