Technical Education

Reach for your wallets: The cost of going to college in Indiana is going up.

A week after state education leaders recommended tight caps on tuition increases, four of the seven public institutions have announced plans to exceed them.

Teresa Lubbers, the state’s higher education commissioner, said she would rather the colleges find funds elsewhere before they add expenses to Hoosier families.

IU officials laid the blame for the increase at the feet of state lawmakers, who they say have not adequately funded building maintenance over the past decade. IU says many of its 900 buildings and other infrastructure throughout the state desperately need repair.

“Many of our buildings are very old, some over 100 years old, and we must make significant investments in repair and maintenance projects to ensure their continued use,” IU president Michael McRobbie said in a prepared statement issued Friday afternoon.

A state fund designed to provide IU about $32 million a year for its buildings has been funded only to the tune of about $5 million a year.

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The University of Minnesota announced today that sophomore-to-be forward Max Gardiner has left school to play junior hockey next year. Gardiner’s most likely destinations would be the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL, after Dubuque took him in the USHL Draft this past Monday, or playing for the Tri-City Americans in the WHL.

Gardiner struggled in his only season of college hockey after coming to Minnesota straight from Minnesota high school hockey and was woefully under-prepared for the rigors of college hockey. He was a late addition to the team after forward Josh Birkholz left the team over the summer while facing a suspension.

Gardiner’s struggles highlight just how hard it can be for an 18-year-old coming directly from high school hockey.

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The U.S. Department of Education will for the first time give school districts guidance on when to use restraints and seclusion as ways on children with disabilities.

According to Disability Scoop, Alexa Posny, told a federal autism advisory committee Thursday that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will issue guidance to schools this fall and will also provide the first national data on the use of restraints and seclusion in schools.

“There are no federal regulations that exist, so it makes it very hard for us at the Department of Education to go out and say you can and can’t do this,” Ms. Posny told the safety subcommittee of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. “We have no role in enforcement at this point.”

Restraints and seclusion are intended to calm and protect students from harming themselves or others. But their use has been under scrutiny for several years and has been investigated by agencies including the Government Accountability Office.

Some states govern their use and others do not.

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Constrained and responsible was how Purdue University administrators described a proposed tuition increase unveiled Monday.

Purdue students who will pay the freight were using different words Monday.

The plan, if approved, would raise the cost of attending West Lafayette campus by 4.5 percent for in-state students and 3.8 percent for nonresident students for each of the next two academic years.

That means, tuition would change from $9,070 this year to $9,478 in 2011-12 and $9,900 during 2012-13 for Indiana students who enrolled in summer 2009 or after. Additional fees for particular programs, courses and international students are also under consideration.

The proposal was presented during the Purdue trustees’ finance committee meeting Monday afternoon. The trustees’ executive committee will meet May 27 to hear public comments on the rates and vote whether to approve them.

Last week, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education issued a series of tuition recommendations for seven state colleges.

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This announcement just sent over by Tolland High School:

The Tolland High School Athletic Department and the Tolland High School Girls Basketball program are proud to announce that junior captain and all-state player Kristin Schatzlein has accepted a full athletic scholarship to Fairfield University.