At an annual hearing, members of the Boards of Governors and Trustees of Rutgers listened to testimony from students and other members of the Rutgers community about the potential impact of tuition increases and budget constraints the university is facing in the next fiscal year.

The annual tuition and budget hearing, held at the Rutgers Student Center May 1, was postponed from April 16 due to heavy rains and flooding that week. The new date fell just before final exams began for Rutgers students; attendance by students was light.

Still, board members, President Richard L. McCormick, and other members of the Rutgers administration heard from students who said they will face further financial hardship if tuition goes up next year. The Board of Governors will vote on tuition, fees, and room and board at their July 20 meeting.

Although the Governor Jon S. Corzine proposed that Rutgers’ base funding be increased by more than $12 million in the coming state budget, that amount will do little to offset the massive $66 million cut Rutgers absorbed last year while the state was facing a fiscal crisis.

Governor Corzine’s proposal also includes an overall increase of $15.5 million in funding for Tuition Aid Grants to students and continues funding for the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Institute.

Although the increase in funding is welcome progress, Rutgers has a long way to go in recovering from drastic cuts imposed last year. “We are at a level of base funding that we were at five years ago,” said Les Goodman, chair of the Committee on Budget and Finance of the Rutgers Board of Governors. Goodman told the audiences that amount does not include salary obligations, which amount to a $2 million shortfall, he said.

The iTV Studio provided a videoconference for participants from Camden and Newark. Deshon Porter, a student at University College–Newark, told the board that many of his fellow students must work two or even three jobs to keep up with increases in tuition and other school-related expenses.

Nancy Winterbauer, vice president for university budgeting, told Porter that in the event of a tuition increase, some funds would go toward financial aid. “But we can’t promise enough financial aid to ensure that students would be able not to work,” Winterbauer said.

Other students asked the board members and administrators questions about graduate student housing prices, parking fees, services for nontraditional students, loans for mandatory summer sessions, as well as how to encourage family members to advocate for a higher base funding amount in Trenton.

Michael Convente, the incoming president of the newly formed Busch Campus Council, asked the panel for advice on encouraging alumni, students and especially parents to get involved in advocacy.

“I was so passionate about this issue that I got my mom to take off a day of work to come down to Trenton with me,” Convente said. “My mom is a single parent. I’m a twin. We both go to college at the same time. She works two jobs. It’s hard for her to take a day off work but it meant that much to her.”\

Al Gamper, chairman of the Board of Governors, told Convente and the rest of the audience that advocacy is a worthy effort but that state legislators would respond strongly to electoral efforts.

“If you see legislators or senators who are not supporting Rutgers, who don’t support things that you want, you get out and campaign against them, you vote against them,” Gamper said. “Let them know the students en masse will vote against them and the faculty will do the same. We have an incredible voting bloc here at Rutgers ... We can change an election in this state, if we get out and vote.”