The Board of Trustees will consider proposed changes for tuition for next year at its Sept. 12 to Sept. 14 meeting.
Although the window for written public comment has closed, students can still have their say on what they’ll pay to take classes from the University of Wyoming. The board will hear public testimony Sept. 13 from 11 to 11:30 a.m. at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. Current and prospective students, family members, community members and alumni can give their two cents.
“When it comes to tuition, students are heavily affected by tuition increases and decreases, so they should make sure to voice their opinion when the times comes,” said Alex Mulhall, vice president of the Associated Students of Wyoming (ASUW). “A student voice could be the difference between a tuition increase or decrease. If students don’t contribute to the conversation on tuition, then the decision will be made completely by people who don’t actually have to pay it.”
The board acts on tuition changes based on recommendations from the UW administration. This year, the administration has recommended a 4 percent increase for undergraduate and graduate tuition for resident and nonresident students. If the recommendations are adopted, undergraduate Wyoming residents will see a $5 increase per credit hour, upped from $134 to $139. Nonresident undergrads will see an increase of $21 per credit, from $537 to $558.
The increase is in line with long-term tuition policy adopted in 2014, which calls for a four percent increase each academic year. Revenue from each increase goes toward salary increases required for promoted faculty and staff, Academic Affairs funding, libraries and IT. A 4 percent tuition increase approved by the board last year for the 2018-2019 academic year went into effect this fall.
This year, the administration also called for 4 percent increases in tuition for specific programs, including law, pharmacy, nursing, speech language pathology and dental hygiene, and a 5 percent increase in master of business administration programs.
Not all of the tuition recommendations propose taking a bigger chunk out of student and parent checkbooks, however.
The administration recommended decreases in tuition for online-only programs to make the university more competitive with programs offered by other universities at lower rates. The proposal includes a 35% decrease for undergraduate nonresident online tuition, which would drop $187 from $537 this year to $350, and a 45% decrease for graduation nonresident online tuition, a $348 decrease from $780 to $432.
The university retains Huron Consulting Group to analyze enrollment capacity and pricing and make recommendations on tuition changes. In 2017 Huron recommended a 35 percent reduction for non-online out-of-state tuition to bring UW costs in line with competitors like Colorado State University and boost enrollment. ASUW endorsed the decrease in an April Senate resolution.
The university has upped its timeline for considering tuition changes – the board now considers changes almost a year and a half before they take effect – to be more transparent about the process with students and their families. Since the board is considering recommendations on tuition at its September meeting, the window for public comment fell in August. This year, the deadline for online comment was Aug. 24, nearly a week prior to the start of fall classes.
“We were able to pass Senate Resolution #2627 in April when the [Huron] study was conducted, giving ASUW a direction for how students feel in regards to the possible changes,” said ASUW President Seth Jones. “While it is important that students do their part, ASUW is actively working towards representing students as we voted.”
For a full list of tuition recommendations being considered next week see UWyo.edu/trustees/_files/docs/fy20-tuition-spreadsheet_august-bot-call_final.pdf.
