Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

ASU Board Approves Chancellor, Projects, Budget, Tuition Hike

2 min read

The Arkansas State University Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the appointment of Kelly Damphousse as the next chancellor for the flagship Jonesboro campus.

His appointment is effective July 1, and he has a three-year contract.

The board also approved capital projects for 2017-18, budgets and tuition rates.

The overall ASU System operating budget for 2017-18 is $281.2 million, a 2.6 percent increase over last year.

The board approved $10 million for specific capital project plans.

The Jonesboro campus’ $3.9 million capital budget includes completion of the Marion Berry-University Loop road extension and nearly $1 million for fire protection work at the Convocation Center.

The board also agreed to a 25-year ground lease and building lease with Centennial Bank for construction of a Campus Welcome Center on Aggie Road on the A-State campus. Centennial Bank will pay all construction costs and operate a bank branch in 300 SF of the 3,833-SF facility.

ASU-Beebe and ASU-Newport plan to use their capital budgets on energy performance projects.

The system also raised tuition and fees for the Jonesboro campus by 3.4 percent. A-State said it will continue to rank fifth in cost to attend this fall with an increase of $278 to $8,478 annually.

“There is no new state funding and very little general improvement funding for capital projects or deferred maintenance,” ASU System President Chuck Welch said in a news release. “In the absence of new money and considering inflation happens, we have to look at tuition and fees.”

Welch said students on average pay only 54 percent of tuition and fees rates because of federal grants, state scholarships and grants, institutional scholarships and discounts, and athletics scholarships.

Freshmen on the A-State campus this year paid an average of 29 percent of the cost of tuition and fees, he said.

“Only 182 freshmen – 12 percent – in Jonesboro paid the full cost of tuition and fees this year,” Welch said.

Tuition and fee increases at the system’s two-year institutions will be 1.7 percent at ASU-Beebe and ASU-Mountain Home, 3.1 percent at ASU Mid-South and 3.6 percent at ASU-Newport.

Also, A-State’s $168.2 million budget for educational and general operations includes a 2 percent merit-based raise for faculty and non-classified staff.

Classified staff at every campus, with the exception of ASU-Beebe, will receive a 2 percent cost-of-living raise. ASU-Beebe’s classified staff will receive a 1 percent cost-of-living raise.

Non-classified staff at all campuses, with the exception of ASU Mid-South, will receive raises.

Send this to a friend