Georgia colleges looking at fee hikes, steeper cuts

Parents and students at Georgia’s public colleges should keep their pens poised over their checkbooks.

In a conference-call meeting on Wednesday, the Board of Regents is expected to approve temporary mandatory fees for all students. The regents will also consider cutting the employer share of university system workers’ health care plans from 75 to 70 percent.

The surcharge proposal would have students at Georgia’s major research universities paying $100. At the state’s comprehensive four-year colleges and universities, the fee would be $75. And students at two-year colleges would probably pay $50.

The fees are for the winter 2009 semester, which begins in January.

In another action that does not require a vote, the regents are expected to give officials of university system institutions permission to defer maintenance in order to avoid cutting their operating funds.

The regents hope to keep tough economic times from negatively affecting activity in classrooms and laboratories, said John Millsaps, spokesman for the regents.

“Our strategic philosophy from the beginning of the budget process has been to focus on preserving our core mission of teaching, research and service,” Millsaps said.

In mid-October, the regents approved 6 percent cuts in the current budgets at the state’s 35 public colleges and universities. Officials at each institution submitted individual plans for those cuts.

The new adjustments will be imposed system-wide.

If changes in the health plans pass, employees will be allowed to reconsider their options to make any desired changes in their coverage, Millsaps said.