BREAK FOR STUDENTS
Penn State freezes tuition, reduces room and board.
The Penn State Board of Trustees approved on Friday afternoon a $7 billion budget for 2020-21 that includes a university-wide tuition freeze for all students, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board’s committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning recommended at their meeting Thursday the full board approve the budget and flat tuition rates. The approval marks the third year in a row tuition has been frozen for resident Pennsylvania PSU students.
“The undergraduate tuition assumed in the budget reflects the commitment to affordability for students, resident and nonresident,” Penn State President Eric Barron said during the meeting on Friday. “It also acknowledges the financial pressures many students and families are facing during this unprecedented time.”
For lower-division undergraduate, resident Pennsylvania students, tuition will remain at $8,960 per semester, and the corresponding tuition for nonresident students will remain at $17,492.
“It should be noted that this tuition and fee rate applies regardless of the mode of instruction,” university Budget Officer Mary Lou Ortiz said during Thursday’s committee meeting. “That is whether in-person or otherwise and will not be refunded in the event that instruction occurs remotely for any part of the academic year.”
Tuition revenue is expected to decrease by $6.7 million due to COVID-19, according to the proposed 2020-21 operating budget.
Room and board rates for the 2020 fall semester will also be reduced due to the university’s decision to switch to remote instruction after the Thanksgiving holiday.
A standard double room for the fall semester will cost $2,820, $607 lower than the original 2020-21 rate approved in February, while a mid-level meal plan will cost $2,193, which is down $256.
That brings the total cost for both to $5,013, a 14.7% reduction from the February rate.
Spring rates, however, will for now remain unchanged from those approved in February.
Mr. Barron said because budget planning for 2021 has been difficult due to the unprecedented and unpredictable nature of the pandemic, some additional steps may need to be taken to account
for budget shortfalls.
“Depending on the path of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may need to use additional reserves or lines of credit to help cover any operating deficits,” he said. “We will continue to monitor the budget closely to make sure that we can react quickly to changes in our revenue and expense projections.”
The board also noted during the meeting social distancing and safety guidelines that are planned have contributed to a lack of space in classrooms, reducing capacity to nearly 70%.
To account for those changes, Mr. Barron said classroom space has been added from areas not normally used for instruction, such as conference rooms and hotel rooms at the Nittany Lion Inn.
Nearly all course delivery for the fall semester has been finalized, with about half of all course sections either fully in-person or hybrid; 18.44% of course sections are fully in-person, 28.5% are hybrid (meaning a combination of in-person and remote), 31.88% are remote synchronous (in real time), while 15.5% are remote asynchronous and can thus be completed on one’s own time.