The Ohio State Board of Trustees approved a 7 percent increase in tuition at its meeting Friday.
The increase will take effect Summer Quarter, with a 3.5 percent rise in tuition. After another 3.5 percent increase Autumn Quarter, annual tuition for in-state students at OSU will be $8,994. Factoring in other mandatory fees, such as the new Union fee, the annual total will be $9,420, a $741 increase from autumn 2009.
The state supported a tuition freeze for Ohio public universities the previous two years, but budget problems ended that support last year.
OSU could have raised tuition earlier in the year but decided to delay the increase. Instead, the Summer Quarter increase will count as this fiscal year’s allotted raise. The autumn increase will count as next fiscal year’s raise.
The allowance was a one-time deal from the state of Ohio, and OSU had to use its allotted tuition raise now or lose the opportunity.
The Board of Trustees called a special meeting in March so that students could be informed of the potential increase. At the meeting, a board subcommittee listened to the proposal from retired Chief Financial Officer Bill Shkurti and Provost Joseph Alutto and unanimously supported a motion to bring the issue in front of the entire board for an official vote Friday.
At the meeting, current Chief Financial Officer Geoffrey Chatas summarized the proposal and asked for its approval from the board.
The issue passed, with no board members voicing disapproval.
University officials and board members cited OSU’s still relatively low tuition as justification for the increase.
The tuition increase over the last four years was the lowest in more than 40 years at the university, and OSU’s tuition will be lower than five of the six other selective-admission public universities in the state, including Miami University, Ohio University, Bowling Green and University of Cincinnati, officials said.
Kent State’s annual required fees will remain $389 lower than OSU’s.
Student representative to the Board of Trustees Jason Marion used the meeting as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of costs other than tuition.
“The tuition and instructional fee costs are only part of the big picture,” he said. “Course fees, college fees, technology fees, those are part of part of the instruction that goes on at this university, as well, and those fees have actually been increasing quite rapidly over the last five or six years.”
Chatas said other fees, such as room and board, are being reviewed and will be discussed at the board’s June meeting.
