After a 3% increase in tuition for the 2024–25 academic school year, the WSU Board of Regents is considering raising tuition once again.

The increase in tuition would primarily be allocated toward need in the classroom as an academic unit, said Lisa Brunelli, finance and administration executive vice president.

The tuition increase would be by the cap set by the state of Washington for undergraduate residents, due to the Board of Regents by Oct. 1. However, resident and non-resident tuition are typically raised by the same amount, Brunelli said.

“All of those rates are tied together. We can raise them in a differential way, but our intent this year is to raise them all by the same percentage,” Brunelli said.

The funding for the university’s operations such as faculty in the classrooms, salaries for support staff and upkeep of campus come from two primary sources, state appropriations from the state of Washington and from the tuition of students. The cost to promote these operations, however, is increasing, she said.

“As our costs increase, our expectation is that the state and the student portion of those [funds] increases with that,” Brunelli said. “The request that we are making to the regents is to allow us to increase tuition by whatever the state cap is.”