OU Regents approve 5% tuition hike

The University of Oklahoma will raise tuition and mandatory fees 5 percent for resident students next academic year. The increase for nonresidents will be 6.5 percent for undergraduates and 4.3 percent for graduate students.

The tuition hikes are included in the university’s $2.06 billion budget for fiscal year 2018 approved by the OU Board of Regents during a meeting Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

OU President David Boren said he regretted having to propose the board raise tuition, “but we simply have not found any alternative, even with reducing faculty and staff and making other cost cuts.”

“It’s always a painful step to take, but we simply cannot maintain the excellence that we now have (without the increase),” Boren said. Part of what is collected will be given back as additional financial assistance and scholarships, he said.

The budget consists of $960.2 million for the Norman campus and $1.1 billion for the Health Sciences Center.

It is based on some $20 million in cost savings, including voluntary reductions in workforce of 250 people from two years ago, Boren said.

Revenue includes $186.1 million in state appropriated funds, down $12 million from one year ago.

“Now we’re officially dead last (nationally) in what we spend as a state in higher education,” Boren said.

“There are costs and there are tradeoffs when we face such a budgetary situation,” he said. “My concern is that we are risking the future of our state when we underinvest in the education of the next generation, underinvest to the point that we are the very bottom state in both common education and higher education.”

Even with the tuition increase, OU remains near the bottom in Big 12 and

nationally in combined tuition and fees, Boren said. Flat-rate tuition will be $4,531 per semester for resident undergraduates.

Cameron, Rogers State

The OU Board of Regents also governs Cameron University and Rogers State University. Budgets and tuition rates for those schools also were approved Tuesday.

Cameron’s $46 million budget includes a 3.5 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees for Oklahoma residents, or $7 per credit hour.

“Tuition is the last thing that we use to make a budget work,” President John McArthur said.

Tuition accounts for 48 percent of the Cameron’s revenue, while state appropriated funds make up 36.6 percent. The FY18 university’s state appropriation is $16.6 million, a decrease of more than $1 million from the current fiscal year.

One year ago, Cameron University reduced its staff by 66 positions through attrition and layoffs. Another three staff positions have been eliminated in the new budget, McArthur said.

Rogers State University’s $32.8 million budget includes a 5 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees, or $11 per credit hour.

“We worked hard to reduce costs. The budget is slightly less than last year,” President Larry Rice said.

RSU eliminated five positions for 2017-18 and will continue to furlough full-time faculty and staff one day per month, Rice said.

Tuition accounts for 41.2 percent of the university’s revenue and state funding makes up 36.4 percent. The FY18 state appropriation is $10.9 million, a decrease of nearly $700,000 from the current fiscal year.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education will take final action on the proposed budgets and tuition rates June 29.