As session kicks into gear, various state institutions are formalizing budget requests. But in the case of the state Board of Regents, it may be more apt to say the lack of requests.
The Board of Regents, the body overseeing all public colleges and universities in South Dakota, has successfully held tuition rates effectively flat over multiple years.
Regents executive director Nathan Lukkes said this has made the state university network attractive to potential students.
“When I talked about the tuition freeze and some of the cuts and absorbing with inflationary increases campuses have had to do – without this enrollment growth it likely wouldn’t have been possible,” Lukkes said.
Despite this success, Lukkes said there are no requests for the coming financial year.
“This is an odd legislative year for us," Lukkes said. "Typically we’d have a slide of all of our budget requests – we have zero requests this year. We’ve been very grateful and have benefited tremendously from the influx of revenue we’ve had over the last few years and the legislatures prioritization of those funds. We knew coming into the session it was going to be a tight fiscal year.”
That’s because the network faces a potential multi-million dollar cut.
“The governor’s recommended budget included a $2 million cut to the system which, again, we knew was coming and understand you can’t benefit from the good times without also tightening your belt and taking a step back when times are little bit tighter," Lukkes said. "We hope to be at the table and do what we can to support that effort, but those two cuts equate to about a 3.5 percent cut in our overall general fund budget.”
In total, students in South Dakota’s “tuition freeze” era have seen a rise in education costs well under 1 percent, according to the board.