PSU proposes 2.45% hike
Penn State University is proposing a 2.45 percent increase in the aggregate base tuition for the 201718 academic year for in-state undergraduate students, and a 3.85 percent hike for non-resident undergrads.
At University Park, lower-division, undergraduate Pennsylvanians would pay 2.74 percent or $464 more yearly, officials said. Non-resident, lower-division undergraduates there would pay 3.85 percent or $1,210 more a year.
The proposed rates, not counting fees and room and board charges, were unveiled Thursday morning by the board of trustees’ Finance, Business and Capital Planning Committe, meeting in Harrisburg. Penn State's full board of trustees is expected to vote on the proposal Friday.
For the academic year just ended, in-state undergraduate tuition at Penn State's main University Park campus ranged from a base of $16,952 yearly for lower-division students to $21,884 for upperdivision students in some disciplines.
Undergrad rates for nonPennsylvanians ranged from $31,434 to $33,034. For the third straight year, eight of the university’s 19 undergraduate commonwealth campuses would see no increase. They are Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango and WilkesBarre, officials said.
Resident students at the Brandywine, Hazleton, Lehigh Valley, Schuylkill, Worthington Scranton and York campuses, plus those enrolled in the online World Campus, would see an increase of 2.35 percent or $310 a year. In-state students at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, Erie and Harrisburg campuses would see an increase of 2.49 percent or $328 a year at Abington and $346 a year at the other four campuses.
Non-resident undergraduates at the commonwealth campuses would pay 3.85 percent more, ranging from $740 to $842 more a year, dependingon location.
The various rates would cover Penn State's total enrollment university-wide of 99,000, of which about 47,000 are enrolled on the University Park campus.
The proposed tuition rates are part of a $5.7 billion university operating budget set to be presented at Friday'sfull board meeting.
Penn State, like the University of Pittsburgh and Temple and Lincoln universities, already was expecting to receive no increase in its general support appropriation in the commonwealth’s still-unfinished budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.
But at the moment, even that money is held up by a stalemate over how to fund the state’s spending plan.
Penn State said it expects to receive $230.4 million, plus nearly $88 million more to support the Hershey Medical Center, Agriculture Research and Cooperative Extension and the Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Penn State President Eric Barron said the university decided to proceed with its budget proposal including tuition despite the uncertainty in Harrisburg.
“If necessary, we will adjust our fiscal plan as we learn more from the commonwealth,” he said. “However, this is not something that is easily accomplished and would carry with it serious impact, not only to the educational mission of Penn State and affordability for our students, but also to our research and extension efforts, as well as our clinical operation in Hershey.”