WSU Regents to consider 2 percent tuition hike
During Friday’s meeting in Spokane, Regents will discuss tuition, athletics, new HR system
April 30, 2018
The WSU Board of Regents will determine whether to raise students’ tuition next fall this Friday at a meeting in Spokane.
Due to the state legislature’s approval of a 2.2 percent increase in tuition for state universities and colleges last July, undergraduate in-state tuition is expected to increase next school year by $190 dollars, or 2 percent. That will raise in-state tuition to an estimated total of $9,720 per student. Students currently pay $9,530.
With these changes, both graduate and undergraduate nonresident tuition is expected to stay the same for the upcoming year. The tuition rates for graduate resident students will also remain unchanged.
However, the tuition rates for pharmacy doctorate students will also increase, with residents and nonresidents paying an extra $2,000 a year. Residents are expected to pay a total of $21,990, with non-residents paying $38,664.
These tuition increases are expected to generate an additional $1.3 million annual tuition flow, with an estimated enrollment of 650 students into the program. This money would go to addressing programming needs, which is about $460,000, and the remaining $840,000 would be collected by the university and redistributed.
Phil Weiler, the university’s vice president of communications, said this annual tuition flow would create a base to close the gap state funds must provide to produce a doctorate student.
College of Veterinary Medicine students are also expected to see a spike in their tuition. This would lead to residents paying an additional $1,636, bringing the total to $24,994, and non-residents paying an extra $3,962 totaling to $60,550.
The last group to see a rise in tuition will be residential students in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.
Their tuition is expected to increase by $2,240 totaling to $37,240 for each residential student. The college will also see an annual 3 percent increase in tuition over the next few years.
The Board will deliberate the tuition increases during the Finance and Compliance Committee Report session during Friday’s meeting.
The Board of Regents will also discuss Services & Activities Fee rate changes for each WSU campus and the approval of the ASWSU student technology fee, and will review discussion points within other committee reports.
The Board will also discuss purchasing a new university-wide finance and human resources software called Workday, which will cost about $30 million, and hear and approve a budget for WSU Athletics, which is facing a $67 million deficit, according to regents documents.
The WSU Board of Regents meeting will take place in Room 205 of the College of Nursing Building in Spokane. It will begin at 8:45 a.m. Friday.