0% increase in tuition and student fees for 2023-2024 school year
A zero percent increase in tuition and student fees was promised for the 2023-2024 school year at this year’s Truth in Tuition event on March 1, presented by Utah State University Student Association President Clara Alder and Utah State University President Noelle Cockett.
The Logan campus’s tuition will remain $3,693 for resident students, and $11,652 for non-residents. Student fees will be $459, the same as last year.
According to the USU Historical Academic Year Tuition file, this is the first year since 1980 that tuition will not be increased.
Alder said, “President Cockett and I are committed to advocating for greater transparency in tuition dollars being used, and exploring new ways to make education more affordable and accessible.”
Not raising tuition was a primary goal of Alder’s presidency.
Truth in Tuition is held every year for students to know how much tuition and student fees will be changing, and how tuition and student fees are being spent.
According to Alder, tuition is going toward “covering the cost of providing quality education, paying for faculty and staff salaries, maintaining facilities and investing in new technologies and resources, and financial aid programs that help students who may not be able to afford the full cost of tuition.”
Changes in tuition are decided over the course of months and approved by multiple groups. According to Alder, the process began this January and has been reviewed by two student fee boards and a tuition board.
The zero percent increase was then voted on unanimously by the USUSA Executive Council on Feb. 14. The USU Board of Trustees reviewed the change on March 3, and it will be presented by the Utah Board of Higher Education on March 24.
In the past, the state government has provided 75 percent of the increase in salary for USU faculty and staff. The University has provided the gap amount of 25 percent by raising tuition.
However, because the tuition is not increasing this year, the 25 percent is unaccounted for.
According to the Utah State Legislature Brief, “The Utah Legislature provided funds for a 7.65% salary compensation increase for higher education employees.”
USU leadership must now determine how the salary compensation increase will be split between an across-the-board salary increase and discretionary increases to address issues of salary compression, employee retention and pay equity.
According to two prior Statesman articles, previous increases in tuition have been a direct effect of the state legislature’s inability to provide total salary compensation.
The only change announced in this year’s meeting was a restructuring of USU’s technical education courses across the state.
The USU Eastern, Blanding, and Moab campuses will see a tuition increase from $67.50 per credit to $95.00 per credit. Student fees will be decreased from $15 to $3.
The overall cost for commercial driver’s licenses and heavy equipment programs will have a differential tuition and some course fees.
According to Brian Warnick, department head for technical education, technical education programs are “supported heavily by the state, so the tuition rate is significantly lower over the past two years under the direction of the Utah Board of Higher Education.”
This year the event was broadcasted live for anyone who couldn’t be there in person and for students attending other statewide campuses.
-Andrea.Allen@usu.edu
Featured photo by Heidi Bingham