USU elects to not raise Tier II tuition
USU President Stan Albrecht announced last week there will not be an increase in Tier II tuition next year for the first time since 2001.
Tim Vitale, executive director of public relations and marketing at USU, said tuition is divided into two parts, Tier I and Tier II.
Tier I tuition is set by the Utah State Legislature. Tier II is set by the individual University.
Vitale said the decision to raise tuition begins with the Utah State Legislature.
“The legislature sets the budget given what the circumstances of that year are,” he said.
Vitale said the State Board of Regents waits until the legislature is finished deciding how much money higher education will get and then sets Tier I tuition for all the higher education facilities in the state.
“They are looking at how much money they need to fund the things necessary to get through the next year,” he said.
The raise in Tier I tuition has yet to be determined for the 2013-2014 school year. Vitale said the decision will be made later this week.
Vitale said Tier II tuition is different from Tier I because it is unique to each individual school and is determined by the Board of Trustees.
“Each institution individually gets a chance to look at its own individual needs and determines the need for a Tier II tuition increase,” he said.
Vitale said if Tier II tuition is raised, a public hearing must be held.
“Students have the opportunity to provide input on it,” he said.
However, no hearing will be held this year due to President Albrecht’s announcement that Tier II tuition would not increase this year.
“He himself looked at the legislative funding and said we are going to have zero Tier II tuition increase this year,” Vitale said.
Christian Thrapp, ASUSU President, said he does not foresee the lack of increase affecting students in a negative way.
“They shouldn’t notice a difference between this year and next year,” he said.
Vitale agreed students will not be affected because the money will still be there: It will just come from the state instead of tuition.
“This year we have enough money to fund the things that will directly impact students,” he said. “The state was very kind to us.”
Thrapp said the decision to not increase Tier II tuition was based on a variety of different factors and different people’s opinions.
“President Albrecht is really connected with what’s happening at the State,” he said. “He came to an executive ASUSU meeting and talked to a lot of the central administrators and faculty as well.”
Vitale said Albrecht is very concerned about how much it costs students to attend school.
“His main theme is access to education for students,” he said.
Vitale said besides the president’s efforts to keep tuition down, the recent upturn in the economy also played a large role in making a zero percent raise in Tier II tuition a reality.
“The economic situation as a whole in the country is improving and that was reflected in Utah’s economy,” he said. “The legislature itself reflected it in the budget.”
Vitale said Tier II tuition is used to pay for things such as library journal subscriptions, computer labs and increased numbers of sections of bottleneck courses.
“It is used to benefit students,” he said.
– ashlyn.tucker@aggiemail.usu.edu