With state cuts looming, Temple University raises tuition

A day after Gov. Corbett signed a state budget that cuts funding for higher education, Temple University announced Friday that it would raise tuition nearly 10 percent for Pennsylvania students.

Though the $27.15 billion budget was a done deal, the funding cuts continued to draw protests. About 50 people gathered Friday outside Corbett's satellite office in Center City to denounce the reductions.

The 2011-12 budget reduces funding to four state-related universities, including Temple, by 19 percent. In response, Temple said it would reduce its operating budget by $36 million.

Tuition for in-state students will jump $1,172, from $11,834 to $13,006. More than 70 percent of Temple's nearly 40,000 students come from Pennsylvania.

Out-of-state students will face an increase of $1,170, from $21,662 to $22,832. Mandatory fees will not change.

The university said all of its schools, colleges, and administrative units would be asked to cut their budgets. Freezes on hiring and travel are already in place. Several searches for new deans have been suspended.

To ease the blow of rising tuition, Temple will add $6.8 million in financial aid.

"Gov. Corbett's fiscally responsible budget forces our state government to live within its means and, as a result, will force Pennsylvania's education system to do the same," state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis said in a statement issued Friday.

Outside Corbett's Philadelphia office on South Broad Street, protests over budget cuts continued Friday.

"It's the anniversary of our nation declaring independence from taxation without representation, and 235 years later, we have corporations with representation but no taxation," said Kati Sipp, executive vice president of the union SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

The rally came barely 12 hours after Corbett signed the budget into law.

Corbett got his wish of a spending plan that reduces the cost of state government and contains no new taxes on Pennsylvanians.

Sipp predicted at the rally that the state funding cuts would result in municipalities' seeking local tax increases to make up for the losses, especially to schools.

At the same time, she noted that the budget does not tax Marcellus Shale drilling or close corporate tax loopholes.

Charles Pinchback, whose daughter, Charlene, attends Locke Elementary in West Philadelphia, also spoke at the Broad Street rally.

"They're cutting after-school programs that were really beneficial to her," Pinchback said. "Children are being lost in the streets because we have no after-school programs anymore."

The protesters signed a document of their own - an oversize mock "veto" to symbolize that those in attendance were against the budget. When they were done, the document bore about 50 names.

No state or local officials appeared at the noon gathering.