Meehan says he’ll ask for tuition freeze
UMass President Marty Meehan said he would recommend that the university’s Board of Trustees freeze tuition for in-state undergraduates, beginning in September.
If the board approves his proposal, it would be the second straight year of a tuition freeze for the state’s 75,000-student national public research university system.
Meehan made the tuition freeze announcement in his State of the University address Tuesday, one year after UMass transitioned to online learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To lessen the financial burden on our students and their families, many of whom have suffered from job losses, business closures and other impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, I intend to recommend to the UMass Board of Trustees that we freeze tuition for in-state undergraduate students for the second consecutive year,” he said in a statement. “This is made possible by the support of the federal legislative delegation, which recently passed the American Rescue Plan, and our partners in both the state legislature and Governor Baker’s administration.”
The average in-state undergraduate tuition before financial aid at UMass was $14,722 for academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21.
“President Meehan’s recommendation reflects his recognition that our students and their families have been dealing with significant financial hardship throughout this pandemic,” UMass Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Manning said in a statement. “The board shares this concern and also knows that the skilled management of the university by President Meehan and our five chancellors makes this freeze possible.”
UMass awarded $971 million in federal, state, institutional and other financial aid in fiscal 2020. Since fiscal 2015, institutional aid — funds set aside by the university to decrease actual student costs — has increased 49% to $351 million per year.
Meehan said the university is working toward “near normal operations” in the fall, with most students returning to in-person classes, employees returning to work and “all participating fully in the local economies of our host communities.”
His tuition freeze proposal came just before an appearance on Tuesday before the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means at its hearing on Gov. Charlie Baker’s fiscal 2022 budget proposal and its impact on education.
Baker’s budget proposes $246.3 million in new funding for the initiatives of the 2019 school finance reform law, including an increase of $197.7 million in aid to public elementary and secondary schools.
“We need to reopen our schools,” Education Secretary Jim Peyser said, but added, “This is not a one-and-done challenge. For many children, it will take years to get them back on track.”