Board OKs 5% tuition hike for OSU

TULSA — Undergraduate students at Oklahoma State University’s Stillwater campus will pay 5 percent more in tuition and mandatory fees under a budget approved Friday by the Board of Regents for OSU and the A&M Colleges.

Out-of-state students will pay 5.9 percent more.

Meeting at the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, the board approved a $1.3 billion budget for OSU for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

That includes state appropriations of $183.7 million, a decrease of $11.9 million from the current fiscal year.

“We’re raising tuition and fees more than I wanted to,” President Burns Hargis said. “I don’t know how it will affect us in enrollment going forward.”

Hargis said tuition increases during his time at OSU have averaged about 2.5 percent, but jumped 7 percent last year after state funding was cut 16 percent.

For the 2017-18 academic year, the annual cost in tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduates taking 30 credit hours will be increasing $417 for Oklahoma residents and $1,332 for nonresidents.

Graduate students will pay more too — 6 percent for Oklahoma residents and 3.2 percent for nonresidents — or $462 and $715 annually based on 24 credit hours.

The rates also were raised

various amounts for students at OSU-Oklahoma City, OSU-Tulsa, OSU Institute of Technology-Okmulgee and the OSU Center for Health Sciences.

The state’s FY18 appropriation to higher education resulted in a 6.1 percent cut for each of Oklahoma’s 25 public colleges and universities.

Since fiscal year 2015, the total amount of state appropriations allocated to the OSU system has decreased by more than $57.4 million or nearly 24 percent, Hargis said.

State funding now accounts for 14 percent of OSU’s overall budget, down from 20 percent three years ago.

“We realize the financial burden a tuition increase puts on our students and their families. We have increased scholarship dollars and offer other options to assist our students,” Hargis said.

Even with the increases, OSU tuition and mandatory fees are among the lowest in the Big 12 and well below the national average for landgrant institutions, he said.

Other A&M Colleges

Regents also approved the budgets for four other institutions.

Langston University, which received $925,550 less in state appropriations, will increase tuition and mandatory fees 6.4 percent for resident students or $7.91 per credit hour. Langston also is increasing other fees, housing and meal costs. Oklahoma Panhandle State University’s state funding was cut $358,795.

The university will not increase tuition and mandatory fees next academic year, but will increase academic course fees and will raise the housing rate from $100 to $250 per room to apply to renovations.

Connors State College took a $338,324 cut in state funding. Tuition and mandatory fees for resident undergraduate students will increase 6.5 percent or $8.75 per credit hour.

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College will have $442,472 less in state appropriations for the academic year.

Oklahoma students will pay 5 percent more in tuition and mandatory fees or $7 more per credit hour. Room and board rates also will increase.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education will consider the proposed budgets for final approval June 29.