Regents approve student fee hikes for OSU, A&M colleges
Staff Writer kmcnutt@oklahoman.com
STILLWATER — Students at Oklahoma State University and the other agricultural and mechanical institutions will pay higher fees beginning next fall to help offset state cuts to higher education.
The Board of Regents for OSU and the A&M Colleges approved fee increases Friday for all five institutions.
Chairman Doug Burns, of Norman, said the fee increases are necessary due to the budget crisis.
The state is shifting a burden onto students who will not be able to bear it at some point, said Regent Rick Davis, of Guthrie.
“We’re restricting access,” Davis said.
Among the fee increases at OSU is a 58 percent hike for all courses in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, largely to support faculty and teaching assistants to meet current needs and to staff the new engineering lab opening in the fall. The fee will be $138 per credit hour.
“We’re in a serious battle right now to recruit and retain the best faculty,” OSU Provost Gary Sandefur told the regents.
“We have lost some really important faculty from engineering and agriculture and business, and we continue to be at risk of losing them because of the higher salaries and better research opportunities that other universities have.”
The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology lost three top researchers to universities that are paying them about 30 percent more, Sandefur said.
OSU pays full professors 10 percent to 15 percent less than its Big 12 peers, he said.
The university would need another $12 million to $15 million to pay competitive salaries, said Joe Weaver, vice president for administration and finance. That equates to a tuition increase of 12 to 13 percent per credit hour, Weaver said.
The fee increases approved Friday will bring in about $16.5 million for faculty and facilities, Weaver said.
He said OSU could be cut another $5 million to $7 million next fiscal year.
Fee increases also were approved for Oklahoma Panhandle State University, Langston University, Connors State College and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College.
NEO President Jeff Hale said the students have to pay for upkeep of the 70- and 80-year-old buildings on the Miami campus because the state is failing to do so.
“We’re putting more and more burden on Oklahoma families,” Hale said. “We’re approaching the tipping point.”
It now costs $150 per credit hour to attend NEO, which is twice as much as competitors in nearby Kansas, Hale said. In Missouri, high school graduates who go directly to a two-year school can attend tuition-free because the state pays for it, he said.