Senate Bill 262, which would put a cap on tuition beginning the 2005-06 academic year for Indiana public universities, will be voted on by the state Senate today.
On Monday, amendments that Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, placed on the bill passed in its second reading. The amendments ask for universities to have the opportunity to reset the tuition rate after the state budget is announced.
Ball State currently sets tuition rates in late April after the state has proposed its budget for universities. The bill will require universities to set tuition in December.
The amendment states that the changed rate will only affect freshmen who have not agreed to the tuition set in December, Kenley said.
"This will hopefully protect freshmen," Kenley said.
Senate Bill 262 also asks for all public universities to abide by a cap of no more than the greater of either 4 percent or the higher education cost-of-living index.
The cap will only affect continuing in-state students.
Universities will not have a limit on the tuition of freshmen, graduate students, out-of-state students, part-time students or anyone there after four years.
Kenley met with university officials concerning the bill and his amendments to the bill in late January.
"Most are skeptical," Kenley said. "They currently have a lot of freedom."
There are currently no laws to determine how universities set tuition, and acting president Beverley Pitts said in January that a cap on tuition will only hurt students' education and the amount of resources offered to them.
"Everything around you is paid in part by tuition," Pitts said.
Kenley, however, said, "We owe incoming students some predictability."
If the bill passes today in the Senate it will then move to the House.
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