OU President David Boren to lobby for higher tuition, possible sin tax hike

<br>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ The president of the University of Oklahoma plans to lobby state legislators to lift the 7 percent tuition increase limit as a way to make up for a funding gap. <br><br>The budget

Wednesday, December 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ The president of the University of Oklahoma plans to lobby state legislators to lift the 7 percent tuition increase limit as a way to make up for a funding gap.

The budget shortfall of between $15 million and $25 million at OU could force officials to cut hundreds of classes and adjunct professorships, David Boren told the OU Board of Regents on Tuesday.

The only solution will be to raise tuition or hope the state finds a way to provide more money to higher education.

``We are facing a tuition and fee increase of substantial magnitude if we want to keep our quality,'' Boren said.

Increasing tuition would bring in an additional $4.6 million, he said.

Cutting adjunct professorships and eliminating 1,100 hundred class sections will save OU between $6 million and $7 million. The university offers 12,000 class sections each semester.

Employees also may have to go on unpaid furloughs, which would save the university $500,000 a day. Cutting the library's journal subscriptions would save between $2 million and $3 million.

Boren said he is working with new Oklahoma State University President David Schmidly on lobbying state legislators about a higher tuition increase cap.

He suggested increasing so-called ``sin'' taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. Boren also said the state could generate more money by adding a lottery.

OU will continue to operate this fall and next spring from its reserves, which total about $9 million, Boren said. Any cuts or furloughs won't come until the next academic year.

Meanwhile, the regents extended Boren's three-year contract by two years, said Joe Harroz, OU's chief legal counsel.

Boren's $285,304 annual salary wasn't increased.