Tuition is the last element set in the UNM budget.
Wynn Goering, special assistant to the president, said that is why tuition hikes seem like they are linked with faculty raises.
"It has to do with the order in which revenue decisions are made," he said.
He said the first part is assessing the funds UNM gets from the state Legislature. The second part is filling in the tuition credit, and the third part is figuring out the total tuition increase. The tuition credit is the amount the state determines tuition should go up, a figure they subtract from the amount they give to the University.
"If everything else is constant, that ends up being tuition," he said.
He said a 2 percent increase in tuition is enough for a 1 percent compensation increase for faculty and staff.
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Goering said this year members of the UNM administration working on the budget decided to put money into services for students, but there is a dilemma about giving faculty and staff raises.
"Faculty salaries are lower than average," he said. "We have to raise them."
This year the state mandated a 2 percent compensation increase. Part of that increase isn't funded because the University has to pay 0.75 percent to faculty retirement funds.
"That's $1.5 million extra to comply with the law," Goering said.
He said the price of tuition is set last, which is why it ends up being linked to compensation.
The budget scenarios given to the University range from an 8 percent tuition increase to a 12 percent increase. All options include a 2 percent raise for faculty and staff.
Mark Martinez, budget director at TVI, said the technical vocational school is in the same boat.
"If you don't take from tuition, you have to take from somewhere else," he said.
TVI's budget for next year is not yet public, but last year they gave faculty a 6 percent raise and tuition has not increased for the last three years, he said.
Tuition at TVI is $38.50 per credit hour. He was unsure what the average faculty salary was.
He said TVI takes all its revenues and decides what's best.
"You can't control money coming in from the state, but you can control tuition," Martinez said. "Maybe that's why it feels like tuition is linked with compensation."
Junior Jenna Stanton said she doesn't think instructors are paid enough as it is.
"If they're increasing stuff for other parts of the University, then teachers should get some of that," she said.
Stanton said it would be nice if the University could find a way to give faculty and staff a raise without making tuition more.
"It'd be smart if the University could find a way to do that, give them a raise without jacking up our tuition," she said.
Senior Ray Waggerman said he didn't understand why tuition had to go up again.
"I realize UNM's got lower tuition, but at the same time, a 24 percent increase in two years seems like a lot to me," he said.
He said faculty should be well compensated, but it comes at the expense of students.
"I just think they see this as an opportunity to raise tuition," he said.
Political science professor Chris Butler said the problem is not faculty raises.
He said UNM benefits from raising tuition because it gets more lottery funds, which cover a percentage of tuition are not set at a flat rate. Increased funding from tuition is going to other things this year, he said.
"It's always nice to have a raise," he said. "Do we need a big one every year? I don't know."
Bruce Perlman, director of the School of Public Administration, said education costs.
"The quality of faculty directly impacts the quality of education," he said. "Being able to recruit and retain faculty is important to faculty and staff."
He said it is in the interest of students for faculty to get raises, adding it would be nice if the state gave the University more money to pay for raises.
"If faculty were going to get raises, it has to come from somewhere," he said.
