Update on Penn State's tuition

Given the U.S. Department of Education's decision to return Governor Rendell's application for stimulus funding because of the exclusion of the four state-related universities, Penn State has decided to go with the lower set of tuition increases (3.7% to 4.5%) the Board of Trustees had authorized. This will certainly be a relief to students and their families, but is a risk on the part of the university. While the ED returned Rendell's application, there's still no guarantee Penn State will see any of the stimulus money. Here is Penn State's news release.

So the university is opening itself up to the possibility it will have to implement either large mid-year expenditure cuts and/or a mid-year tuition increase if the stimulus money does not come through. In addition, since Pennsylvania still does not have a budget (17 days into the fiscal year and counting), there's still the risk that the university's appropriation could require it to implement some of these mid-year measures. Stay tuned.