President Jo Ann Gora met with the State Budget Committee on Thursday to defend Ball State's recent tuition increases.
Leaders from other state universities also made appeals.
Collectively, the budget committee is just an advisory group. But individually, state legislators on the committee can take the information they receive and propose legislation for the next General Assembly.
Randy Howard, vice president of Business Affairs and treasurer, accompanied Gora on her visit to the statehouse. He described the meeting as a brief question and answer session.
"We talked about the same things we did at the tuition forum," Howard said, "about the difficult balancing act between quality and affordability. We're sensitive to Hoosier families having to pay tuition, but we want to provide a quality education."
Tuition increased by 3.9 percent for undergraduates this year, and 9.1 percent for graduate students. The increases were in light of steady decreases in state appropriations over the past decade. The 2012 state operating appropriation was equivalent to the amount of state support from 2002. In the last five years, state funding has decreased by 11 percent.
Howard said one question that stood out to him dealt with quality of education, which is emphasized in Ball State's strategic plan.
Howard said legislators asked how Ball State can determine if students value the way they learn. Howard's answer was in the increased number of applications and enrollment at Ball State. Enrollment increased by more than 200 students to make an incoming class of 3,822.
Howard said the idea of efficiency will always be a topic of conversation among state legislators.
"They wanted to have a dialogue," he said. "At the end of the day, they're concerned about the rising tuition costs for Hoosiers."
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