Tuition

With student debt hitting the trillion-dollar mark, outpacing car and credit-card debt, Temple University's announcement of a $100 million fund-raising drive to write down student tuition is welcome. Famous Temple grad Bill Cosby has pitched in with a few videos to help pitch fellow alumni and others. Half of the money would go directly to student aid, and the other half would seed an endowment fund to sustain it. The size of this fund-raising drive, four years of cost-cutting, and a base tuition freeze this year puts Temple in the vanguard of universities tackling the price of a college education.

NEWARK, N.J. - A U.S.-born high school student was wrongfully denied state tuition assistance based on the fact that her mother is an illegal immigrant, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Wednesday. The appellate division of Superior Court determined that residency requirements pertain only to the student, finding that the applicant, identified by her initials, A.Z., was a U.S. citizen who had spent most of her life in New Jersey. The ruling could affect thousands of American-born New Jersey students who were denied college tuition aid based on their parents' immigration status, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and a Rutgers University legal clinic that filed the appeal on A.Z.'s behalf.

SHOW THEM the money.   Irked by a Daily News story Monday that chronicled two competing charities that fund college scholarships for slain cops' kids, city police-union officials are mounting a campaign to persuade the public to donate exclusively to the fund they support, the Hero Thrill Show Inc. A billboard will go up on Interstate 95 announcing that the 6-year-old Hero Thrill Show Inc. — not the 58-year-old Hero Scholarship Fund...

  Rutgers University will raise tuition and fees 2.5 percent for in-state undergraduate students, its board of governors decided Wednesday. Students protesting outside the board's meeting in New Brunswick had called for a tuition freeze. Tuition and fees for a typical in-state undergraduate living on the university's main New Brunswick campus in the next academic year will rise $318, to $13,073. Room and board charges will go up $206, to $10,970. The total cost for the typical student adds up to $24,043, an overall increase of about 2.2 percent.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Monday approved a 3 percent tuition hike for 2012-13, equal to about $188. Pennsylvania residents attending one of the 14 state universities full-time will pay $6,428 annually, beginning this fall. Full-time undergraduate tuition for nonresident students will range from $9,642 to $16,070, the system said. The graduate tuition rate for state residents will be $429 per credit, up $13. For nonresident graduate students, it will increase by $20 per credit to $644.

NEWARK, Del. - The University of Delaware is raising tuition and fees by more than 4 percent next year. Instate undergraduate students will pay an additional $490 to attend the school next year, an increase of 4.4 percent, officials said. Total instate tuition and fees for the 2012-13 academic year will be $11,682. Out-of-state tuition and mandatory fees will increase by $1,310, or 4.8 percent, bringing the total for nonresident students to $28,772. - AP

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania State University's president is proposing the lowest tuition rate increase in 45 years. At a news conference in the Capitol Thursday, Rodney Erickson said he would present to the board of trustees a 2.9 percent proposed increase for in-state students attending the University Park campus and a 1.9 percent increase at commonwealth campuses. Earlier the university set the room-and-board increase at an average 2.86 percent, $125 higher than the current year's rate of $4,370.

Temple University's Board of Trustees on Thursday morning voted to hold the line on tuition for 2012-13, their vote coming just days after state lawmakers proposed restoring a 30 percent budget cut to Temple and two other state-related colleges. It's the first time since 1995 that the university has not raised tuition, said spokesman Ray Betzner. The zero increase in tuition covers both in-state and out-of-state students. For in-state students, tuition will remain at $13,006.

Temple University's board of trustees voted Thursday morning to hold the line on tuition for 2012-13, its decision coming just days after state lawmakers proposed restoring a 30 percent budget cut to Temple and two other state-related colleges. It's the first time since 1995 that the university has not raised tuition, said spokesman Ray Betzner. The zero increase in tuition covers both in-state and out-of-state students. For in-state students, tuition will remain $13,006 and for out-of-state students, $22,832.