00:01 - Christopher Fiorentino, chancellor of Pennsylvania

00:03 - State System of Higher Education.

00:05 - What are the state system's budget priorities during this next budget season?

00:10 - Well, we have requested a 5% increase in our state appropriation,

00:14 - and we've committed that a 5% increase would allow us

00:17 - to maintain level tuition into the next year.

00:20 - We're very focused on access and affordability.

00:23 - We're the low cost option.

00:25 - And for higher education in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,

00:28 - the state appropriation has been a great support

00:32 - in our in our ability to keep our costs down.

00:35 - It represents about 36% of our budget.

00:38 - And if we are able to achieve that 5% increase

00:41 - in the state appropriation, then for the seventh,

00:44 - I actually eighth year out of nine, we will have held tuition level,

00:48 - which is putting our students in a great position to be able to afford

00:53 - high quality education at a very reasonable price.

00:57 - What have you been hearing from members of the General

00:59 - Assembly about their concerns about higher education?

01:03 - Well, this is a challenging time for

01:06 - for higher education, for the for the Commonwealth budget in general.

01:10 - We're we're very, very,

01:13 - confident that the members of the General Assembly, both sides of the aisle,

01:18 - understand the high value associated with the paci system, with the students

01:23 - who graduate from our schools that are extremely well prepared.

01:28 - 90% of our students come from the Commonwealth.

01:30 - 80% of them

01:32 - take their first job in the Commonwealth, settle down and start their lives here.

01:36 - So an increase in the state appropriation is an investment

01:41 - in the future of the Commonwealth, and it will enable us to continue

01:45 - to make this the most affordable educational opportunity for our students.

01:49 - And we're very confident that the members of the General Assembly understand that.

01:54 - What are

01:54 - some of the factors other than the state contribution

01:57 - that go into, determining what tuition is going to be?

02:02 - Well, we we've focused on a number of factors.

02:05 - We look at overall enrollment.

02:09 - We've been in a period of decline in past years, but this past year,

02:12 - specifically, we we leveled out and had an uptick in enrollment.

02:17 - If we have an uptick in enrollment, then that generates more tuition revenue.

02:20 - So that is a factor in determining what our ultimate revenue is going to be.

02:25 - We also track retention.

02:27 - Retention is the ability to to have students continue on beyond

02:31 - their first year into their second year and onward after that.

02:34 - And we just hit a record level of retention this past year, 81%

02:38 - for overall retention from the first year to the second year.

02:42 - And if we retain more students, that means we have more paying customers

02:45 - and therefore we have more tuition revenue.

02:47 - So those are factors that come into play.

02:49 - And we're also very focused all the time on making sure that we're we're,

02:56 - laser focused on our cost.

02:58 - Anything that we can do to reduce the cost of delivering the high quality

03:02 - education that we offer is something that we're going to we're going to focus on.

03:06 - So these are the factors that all come into play.

03:09 - And the state appropriation increase, if we receive it, in addition

03:15 - to some of these other things, will help us to sustain

03:19 - low tuition into the future, not just in this next year.

03:23 - We're speaking with Christopher Fiorentino.

03:25 - He is a chancellor of Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

03:27 - Thank you for joining us. Thank you. So.