5/4/2007

By James Tinney, WSU News Service

WSU Regents Approve 7 Percent Tuition Increase

PULLMAN, Wash. – Full-time undergraduate resident students at Washington State University will pay $5,812 in tuition for the 2007-2008 academic year, a rate that was approved by the WSU Board of Regents Friday.

That represents a 7 percent increase over the 2006-2007 academic year. Rates for non-resident undergraduates and both resident and non-resident graduate students are also increasing by 7 percent. Tuition will increase by an additional 7 percent in the 2008-2009 academic year.

For a complete list of tuition rates, click here.

In the just-completed legislative session, the Washington State Legislature passed the 2007-2009 appropriations act with a provision limiting tuition increases for Washington state resident undergraduate students at both WSU and the University of Washington to 7 percent a year through 2016-17. Through the legislation, the state also makes a commitment to provide money to help close the gap between per-student higher education funding in Washington and the level of the leading economic states. In the past, tuition increases have sometimes been needed just to offset cuts in state funding.

The regents, who voted unanimously for the tuition plan, said that while they understand that tuition hikes are never welcome, the plan enacted by the state to put higher education financing on an upward trajectory is good news.
 
 “What’s important to me is the partnership between what the students are bringing to the table and what the state government is bringing to the table,” said Regent Francois Forgette.

Legislative budget writers assumed tuition increases of 7 percent when they set
WSU’s 2007-2008 budget. Tuition revenue pays for about half of the cost of instruction for undergraduate programs.

On Friday, the regents also set annual services and activity fee rates at $478 for the academic year, an increase of 5 percent, and Student Recreation Center annual fees for students on the Pullman campus at $256, an increase of 6.67 percent. That is the first increase in the recreation center fee in four years.