Temple announced it would raise tuition 9.9 percent for in-state students and 5.4 percent for out-of-state students like Speers. At Pennsylvania State University, officials plan a yet-to-be-determined increase. The University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University have not announced hikes.
Tuition will go up 7.5 percent in the fall at the 14 state-owned colleges, which include West Chester University.
For the people who run Pennsylvania colleges, it was a week of good news and bad news.
The good news? The state budget was for once signed on time, so colleges have solid figures on funding at the start of the fiscal year.
The bad news? The figures are terrible.
The four state-related universities - Temple, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Lincoln - suffered 19 percent reductions in support, and the 14 state schools were cut 18 percent.
Both numbers are better than the 50 percent reduction that Corbett proposed to help close a $4 billion deficit. Yet both are historic reductions that have left students, parents, and administrators reeling.
"Cutting something as essential as education shows a fundamentally distorted priority list," said Temple senior Beth Cozzolino, 20, of Audubon, Montgomery County, who helped lead marches and lobby legislators to restore funding this school year. "It's still going to hurt a lot of people."
She pays for college through loans, work study, grants, and savings - the last supplemented by parents who have been putting money aside for nearly 20 years.
Cozzolino's father, Tom, said helping his four children pay for college meant skipping big vacations and new cars.
