USU proposes increase in tuition for 2019-2020 school year by 3.1 percent
Students should expect a 3.1 percent increase in tuition next year was the message at the Truth in Tuition town hall meeting in the Taggart Student Center today.
Utah State University President Noelle E. Cockett addressed a record crowd this year as she announced increases in tuition, as well as the various areas of the university that students will be funding through the increased tuition.
This is the third year in a row that the university has raised the price of tuition, following a 5 percent raise in 2017 and a 3.9 percent raise in 2018.
“When we came up with different ideas about how to draw more of you to this meeting, I said ‘Is there going to be a protest if we talk about raising tuition?’” Cockett said.
Due largely to the repeat raises in tuition, transparency became a major motivation for Cockett and for members of the tuition board in holding the meeting. In an attempt to address the negative connotations associated with a rise in tuition, Cockett said that the tuition committee decided to give a very detailed report about how a student’s money would be invested.
“Too often, raising tuition looks like a big black box or maybe dartboard. I throw the dart to see where it might land” Cockett said. “We’re being very, very specific about what this tuition increase can be used for.”
Jaren Hunsaker, the USU student body president, said that while the board of regents was the ones to ultimately approve the proposals, students have also played a large role in the discussion over tuition.
“I just want you all as students to know that student input was taken very seriously,” Hunsaker said.
While the state of Utah provides funding for the university to promote campus infrastructure and initiatives, there is also an expectation that students will contribute a part to their education.
The largest percentage of the increase in tuition revenues comes mandated from the state. This means 2.42 percent out of the 3.1 percent proposed increase in tuition will be used to provide faculty promotion and tenure adjustments as well as insurance premiums and other associated costs.
The legislature also requires that 25 percent of a raise in salary for university faculty is to come out of student tuition.
“If we had a faculty member making 80,000 dollars a year, the state is probably going to say that there would be a 2 percent salary increase,” Cockett said. “That would then require us to collect 2,000 dollars for that salary increase. Of that increase, the state will give us 1,500 dollars, but we would have to collect 500 dollars from an increase in tuition.”
Other percentages of the increase include scholarship money, money for Title IX position accommodations, general education courses that experience bottleneck due to large numbers of students and lack of instructors, and analytic work on programs like Canvas and Banner.
Although transparent in the details of student tuition, students also requested more transparency in student fees. During a question and answer session students expressed concern over being able to see what their tuition and fees go towards on the student portal.
Dexton Lake, the current agriculture and applied sciences senator and executive vice president-elect for the USU Student Association said that legislation has recently been passed by the university that requires all student fees to be viewable in the student portal through the Touchnet payment system.
“So remember that when you say USUSA elections don’t matter, because they do and that happened,” Lake said.
Cockett said that while student fees and rises in tuition can be controversial, ultimately they are necessary for both the university and the students.
“We are aware and we are conscious about raising tuition,” she said. “But as I hope you can see, we do need tuition investment and therefore your investment in what we’re doing here.”