Graham Spanier told Student Body President Christian Ragland that Penn State U. doesn’t have a gameplan to deter or compensate for the rising costs of tuition, but rather has a plan to “cope” with it.

The president of the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) posed the question to Spanier, after Spanier announced the proposed operating budget and tuition increases for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Penn State can’t assume there will be appropriation dollars from the state next year, Spanier said — and therefore could be “having a very difficult discussion” this time next year. But he told Ragland (senior-political science) that administrators will begin working on next year’s budget come Monday.

But because of the uncertainty of state revenue, the possibility of new state taxes and the actions of the new governor in the state legislator, university officials will not have a clear idea of their appropriation from the state until mid to late spring, Spanier said.