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It's the inability to attend another desired college because of their family's income level. It's the announcement of another tuition increase while they still are repaying last semester's loans. It's the decrease in their grant awards because of the job they took so they could pay their school and living expenses.

These are the anecdotes for which the chancellor of the State System of Higher Education has few antidotes. Competition for funding from the state's coffers is constant and fierce, while an institution's costs for employee health care, technology, utilities and building maintenance continue to rise, Dr. Judy Hample said Monday night at the IUP Student Congress meeting.

So while students are digging deeper into their pockets, Hample said the system also is crunched. Since the 1999-2000 fiscal year, enrollment at the 14 SSHE universities increased by 11 percent while the state appropriation for the system dipped by $4 million.

In October, SSHE's Board of Governors agreed to request $464.6 million in state funding to support the system's estimated operating budget of $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2005-06. The request is 7.2 percent more than this year's appropriation, but Hample said contractual obligations and other cost increases leave SSHE officials in a position in which "we will certainly be recommending" a tuition increase next year.

"We have no alternative but to raise tuition," Hample said. "I don't know how much."

The General Assembly approved a $16 million increase for the system's schools for this fiscal year, but health care costs rose by $19 million, said Thomas Gluck, SSHE director of communications. If state officials were to approve the 2005-06 funding request by the Board of Governors, the system still would be dealing with an approximate 6 percent gap between expenses and revenue.

"Five or six years ago, it (the tuition increase) was 0 (percent)," said Hample, the chancellor since August 2001. "The universities about went belly-up."

"When two-thirds of your revenues are from tuition and you don't raise it, you begin to feel it," she added.

The topics of tuition and financial aid dominated a spirited question-and-answer session as several students pressed Hample to express the benefits of attending a SSHE school. Hample sparked some of the inquiries by saying Pennsylvania is one of about 15 states that provide a substantial amount of funding for its private institutions, whose students also receive a lion's share of the grant money available through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.

"The higher the tuition, the higher amount of PHEAA money you're eligible for," Hample said.

About 20 percent of the state's education budget is devoted to financial aid, she said. Approximately one-third of SSHE undergraduate students receive funding through PHEAA.

Hample said she feels passionately that state and taxpayer money should be reserved for public institutions, but Pennsylvania has a history of subsidizing private colleges and universities. A veterinarian school at the University of Pennsylvania still receives a direct appropriation, she said.

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