CNU approves guaranteed tuition and fees model
NEWPORT NEWS — Freshmen entering Christopher Newport University next fall will do so knowing exactly what their tuition and fees will be over the next four years.
The Board of Visitors, which governs the university, approved the “Captain’s Commitment” during a meeting Friday afternoon.
In the plan, a freshman in 2019 would pay $15,744 in tuition and fees, a 6.7 percent increase over the current year. That amount will go up 1 percent each of the next three years. The sophomore rate will be $160 more ($15,904); junior rate $162 more ($16,066); and senior rate $162 more ($16,228).
“Our families deserve the financial certainty that this plan provides so they can plan and provide for higher education of their children,” said rector Bobby Hatten.
For new students in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the starting amounts would go up at least 6.8 percent over the previous year’s freshman rate.
For example, a freshman in 2020 would pay $16,814. Each increase the next three years would be 1 percent, for a final senior year price tag of $17,330.
By the time the Class of 2026 is paying its last year’s bills, tuition and fees would cost $19,804.
Out-of-state costs would also increase by the same rates of 6.7 percent freshman year and 1 percent every year after. Next year’s freshmen would pay $29,470 in fall 2019, which would rise to $30,360 by their senior year.
Returning and transfer students can also opt-in to the guarantee. They would see an increase of 6.7 percent next year, and 1 percent the following years they are at CNU.
Otherwise, the university’s six-year plan calls for, on average, 4.9 percent increases in tuition and fees, numbers that are also confirmed for the next four years by the approval of the plan. Students not opting in to the tuition guarantee next year would be $15,470 in the fall and $16,226 the following year.
For a rising sophomore opting in next year, Trible said last month, that amount saved by picking the guarantee over having three 4.9 percent increases would come out to $1,002. A student who is enrolled as an undergraduate for more than four years would pay their remaining year(s) of tuition according to the six-year plan rates.
The current cost of tuition and fees is $14,754, an 8.1 percent increase over the year before. Room and board is $11,460. The board approved those amounts in April, before a final state budget was approved.
Prior to approval, board members expressed their desire for more funding from the General Assembly. Hatten said that state funding is not at the level provided by state code, necessitating higher tuition.
“Their continuing refusal to follow the statues of Virginia which require that kind of support have resulted in the transfer of the cost of higher education to students and that is obviously unfair but that is the environment that we live in,” Hatten said. “We must continue to meet our obligations to serve these students and to provide them the kind of education that they expect…
“Hopefully when the General Assembly does become more responsible and provides us with the support that the statute requires, we can revisit these numbers and our students will be the beneficiary of that, but in the meantime this is a course of conduct that we’ve all recognized necessary that we have chosen.”
Room and board for next year and the per credit hour rate for classes will be set during an April 2019 board meeting.
Several other state universities have guaranteed tuition plates, although none other than CNU’s include mandatory fees. The College of William and Mary introduced the “William and Mary Promise” in 2013. It guarantees that a freshman’s tuition rate will remain the same for all four years. This year’s tuition is $17,434. Jane Hammond, 757-247-4951, ejhammond @dailypress.com.
Plan gives more financial certainty to new students