When Ohio State students return for Autumn Quarter, they should plan to bring their wallets. With the approved tuition increase and mandatory Union fee, annual fees will be at least $741 more than they were in autumn 2009.
The increased tuition represents $8,994 of the now $9,420 in annual fees. This spring, the Board of Trustees held a series of meetings discussing the increase and approved the measure with no opposition in May.
“It is with a sense of regret, but also with a sense of realization that there are things we must do going forward to increase the quality of the institution,” said Provost Joseph Alutto to the Board of Trustees in March.
The increase became necessary after state budget problems ended the two-year government-supported tuition freeze. OSU, along with the other Ohio public universities, were notified they would be allowed to raise tuition in both of the following two years to compensate for the lack of government support.
OSU held off on raising tuition through spring 2010, resulting in the previous four years having the lowest tuition increases in more than 40 years at the university.
But the allowance was a “use it or lose it” type deal according to OSU officials, so the 3.5 percent raise Summer Quarter will count as this fiscal year’s raise, and the 3.5 percent raise Autumn Quarter will count as next year’s.
The new Ohio Union is another factor in the increase in required fees. Students will pay approximately three-fourths of the cost for the new Union, which ended up at $118.8 million.
In the fall, the fee for students will be $51 per quarter. It will rise to $63 by 2015 and go up about $1 a year after that until it reaches $78 in 2030, though the Board of Trustees must approve each raise.
The fees are higher than, or at least on the high end of, multiple projections by OSU officials.
On March 3, 2004, former vice president of Student Affairs Bill Hall told the Undergraduate Student Government that the fee would be $45 per quarter.
On May 28, 2004, the Council of Graduate Students discussed a resolution supporting the Union and the fee. It included a fee range from $30 to $45 per quarter.
In June 2004, the Board of Trustees approved a fee of between $20 and $55 per quarter in fiscal year 2008 dollars.
The higher fee is likely because of the higher-than-anticipated cost of the Union. In 2004, the Board of Trustees approved a $100 million project, $18.8 million less than the actual cost of the Union.
When President E. Gordon Gee was told that the fee will be $63 in 2015 during his April visit to The Lantern, he appeared satisfied with the fee.
“Is that all it is — $63 a quarter? That is an incredible bargain. I can’t believe that. I would think it would be higher than that,” Gee said.
OSU officials agree with Gee and say that OSU as a whole is a bargain for students.
OSU’s tuition will be lower than five of the six other selective admission public universities in the state, including Miami, Ohio University, Bowling Green and Cincinnati. Kent State’s annual required fees will remain $389 lower than OSU’s.
“These other five schools are good schools, but in terms of national reputation, Ohio State is first and our fees are second from the bottom,” said former Chief Financial Officer Bill Shkurti to the Board of Trustees in March. “To me, that is the definition of a good value.”
Others, however, have expressed concern with the rapid increase in fees as well as other costs.
Jason Marion, student representative to the Board of Trustees, expressed this concern before the approval of the tuition increase.
“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.”
Current Chief Financial Officer Geoffrey Chatas said other fees, such as room and board, are being reviewed and will be discussed at the board’s June meeting.
