The Ohio University Board of Trustees approved tuition rates for continuing and guaranteed tuition students for the 2015-16 academic year.
The freshman class arriving in Athens this fall will bring with them a new way to pay for school — as well as a bigger bill.
Despite student protests both out- and inside of the Ohio University Board of Trustees meetings last week, the university’s governing body approved higher tuition and fee rates for continuing students and incoming students. The incoming class will initiate the OHIO guarantee, a four-year flat rate tuition that won’t rise with inflation.
How it adds up
Next year’s in-state freshmen will pay $11,548 in tuition and fees. That comes out to $46,192 over four years.
Tuition and fee rates for out-of-state students under the fixed-tuition program have not yet been finalized, said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration.
Continuing students will pay $10,748 in tuition and fees, which is $211 — or 2 percent — higher than this academic year’s price for knowledge, according to the university.
Students haven’t had a break from annual tuition increases since the 2009-10 academic year. The state limits Ohio’s public universities from increasing more than two percent or $188, whichever is higher. For universities using guaranteed tuition models, the maximum price increase allowed is six percent.
Last year, OU was one of the few schools that did not increase tuition by the state-set maximum.
Costs of higher education are rising nationally
OU isn’t alone in boosting students’ bills every year. The average tuition at four-year public universities throughout the nation came to •$9,139 in the •2014-15 academic year, which is nearly •three percent higher than last year’s average cost, according to the College Board.
OU ranked •second nationally for three-year loan default rates, with a •15 percent default rate among large public universities, according to a previous Post report.
Tuition and state funds are the two stable streams of revenue OU uses to pay off debt and fund construction projects, as well as pay day-to-day costs like employee salaries.
With decreased monetary support from the state, the university has to increase tuition to cover operating costs, •Trustee Sandra Anderson said before the Board voted on the tuition increases.
The state awards funding, called state support for instruction, based on the number of graduates a university has. •OU President Roderick McDavis also serves as chair of the •Inter-University Council of Ohio, which decides the formula for awarding money from the state. McDavis said the IUC modified the formula, which decreased the amount of money OU will see in the next fiscal year; but he has said he plans to discuss another change to the funding formula for coming years.
“We feel good about where we are (among Ohio’s universities),” McDavis said. “We have played by the rules.”
OU to pay the increase for some
Before the protesters interrupted the meeting, Anderson said next academic year’s tuition prices had been vetted by all sections of OU’s shared governance. The Board intends for OU’s new scholarship program, dubbed the OHIO Signature Awards, to offset tuition increases for the “neediest” students, Anderson said.
“That has been very important in this board, and we’ve been very clear to the administration,” she said.
OU pays the tuition increases for students who show the most financial need, based on their families’ expected contributions. Asked how that parameter is defied, OU administrators did not specify what types of circumstances qualify for this support.
Last year, the university did this for 844 continuing students, and Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit expects that OU will be able to cover the tuition increases for 681 continuing students and 639 incoming freshmen.
Later in the meeting, the board passed an update to the Student Code of Conduct, which more clearly defined student free speech protections and clarified the possible responses to student behavior problems.
‘Promise Lives’ campaign raised $29 million more than expected
McDavis updated the board on the academic and financial state of the university. The university already surpassed its $450 million fundraising goal, known as the Promise Lives Campaign, by more than $29 million as of the meeting.
Faculty Senate Chair Beth Quitslund also presented on the need to improve communication among faculty, staff and administration, as well as the impact that skilled faculty have on students.
“The kind of quality and values that make Ohio University a transitive university also rely on a critical mass of group 1 faculty,” Quitslund said.
The meeting ended by passing a consent agenda filled with construction and maintenance project allocations, including a decision allowing Columbia Gas of Ohio to design and construct a new natural gas pipeline for $5.5 million.
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