The president of the Board of Trustees said a letter from the governor asking state universities to cap tuition increases is "100 percent reasonable."
Gov. Joe Kernan sent the letter Wednesday to the Boards of Trustees at all seven public universities in the state, asking them not to increase tuition by more than 4 percent for the coming school year.
"I would certainly think that we would have every intention of keeping it under four," board president Tom DeWeese said.
DeWeese, however, said he has not seen any figures yet that would indicate how much tuition would need to be raised.
"Typically, the legislature would let us know (the funding for Ball State), and then we could determine the budget and how much more was needed," DeWeese said, "and then we would know how much to raise tuition."
When Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, proposed a tuition cap bill in the Senate in January, he said tuition rates have increased by 110 percent at Indiana public universities in the last 10 years.
Kenley's bill, which died on the Senate floor, would have limited tuition increases to 4 percent or the higher education cost-of-living index.
DeWeese said the difference between Kenley's legislation and Kernan's proposal is that Kernan is giving universities a choice. If Kenley's bill would have become a law, they would not have had a choice.
"The difference is the governor has asked us to consider a well-reasoned approach," DeWeese said, "and hopefully we'll end up with a 4 percent increase or less."
When Kenley's bill was being proposed, Acting President Beverly Pitts said a tuition cap would place a burden on Ball State by forcing it to find other means for financing facilities, faculty and staff.
At that time, Pitts said limiting increases could force freshmen and out-of-state students to pay higher tuition to make up for the loss.
Pitts could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
DeWeese said Kernan also asked each university to give 30 days notice before voting on any tuition increase and to hold a meeting to get public input before the increase is made official.
"Thirty days makes sense," DeWeese said. "I can't imagine why we couldn't work around all of that."
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