ANNAPOLIS – Three months ago, university and system officials were celebrating the end of a successful legislative session. In-state tuition had been frozen for the fourth straight year. Despite a floundering economy, the system’s budget avoided significant cuts.

But less than one month into the new fiscal year, the budget looks bleaker, and the tuition freeze is on shaky ground.

State officials approved $282 million in cuts to the state budget yesterday, slashing $37.7 million from the university system’s budget. The reduction means an in-state tuition increase is back on the table, at least for the spring semester.

“Practically, we can’t raise tuition for the fall semester,” University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan said. “But it’s certainly possible that tuition could be raised in the spring, for all students.”

Kirwan said students could face larger class sizes, fewer adjuncts and reductions in student services. A special meeting of the Board of Regents, who oversee the university system, was called for today and will focus partially on the budget.

The cuts were the first round the Board of Public Works will have to make to deal with a $750 million budget deficit by Labor Day. The board, which consists of three Democratic state officials – Governor Martin O’Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp – has power over the budget when the legislature is out of session.

“I think the time has come to look at moderate tuition increases,” Kopp said at yesterday’s meeting as O’Malley nodded in agreement. “You do get to a point where you begin sacrificing quality.”

Still, O’Malley cited the four-year freeze as one of the state’s financial successes.

“It’s not by chance, but by choice that we toed the line for four years in a row against tuition increases,” he said.

The concern among lawmakers and officials is that if the budget is stretched too thin, the university will need to raise tuition to maintain educational quality, but raising tuition increases the barriers to higher education, particularly in the torrid economic climate.

“We shouldn’t shift the burden onto working families,” said State Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s), who represents College Park and helped draft the original legislation that froze tuition in 2006. “Students and their families are struggling, and it doesn’t help anyone to put this on them.”

Student Government Association President Steve Glickman said the organization will eventually take a stance on continuing the tuition freeze.

“We will be taking a stance on it; I’m not sure what that will be, but we’ll be taking a stance soon,” Glickman said. “We need to figure out, if there’s a tuition increase, what the money is going towards, and, if there’s not an increase, what would get cut.”

While tuition was frozen, the university system went from having the sixth highest tuition in the nation to “an estimated 18th,” according to a report from the state Department of Budget and Management. Tuition has remained frozen under O’Malley after increasing repeatedly and rapidly in the early tenure of former Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R).

At the beginning of yesterday’s meeting, Franchot bemoaned the “dreary summertime tradition” of mid-year budget cuts – the fifth time such measures have been taken since O’Malley took office in 2007 – and rattled off a laundry list of fiscal woes plaguing the state, ranging from rampant credit card defaults and struggling banks to unemployment rate of 7.5 percent during June – up nearly 14 percent since April. Franchot made it clear that everyone would see cutbacks – even the university system O’Malley has made such a clear priority in his time in office.

“There are no sacred cows left,” Franchot said. “Everyone will be affected.”

O’Malley also underscored the urgency of the situation.

“We believe that this is the first time in our state’s history – certainly in our modern history – that general fund spending will have declined over a three-year period,” O’Malley said.

Besides higher education, Medicaid providers and stem-cell research funding were also cut. O’Malley said at least $420 million more in cuts will be needed by Labor Day and said he was considering further furloughs for state employees.

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