From the Gazette-Mail
The West Virginia State University Board of Governors voted Friday to increase combined tuition and fees required of all students by 5 percent this fall and declined to further the board chairman’s proposed severance pay policy.
The university will also increase housing costs by 5 percent next school year.
Last month, the board, in a voice vote with no nays heard, approved a budget for next fiscal year that assumed the board would later approve a 5 percent increase in tuition and fee revenue.
There were also no nays heard in Friday’s vote to actually follow through with approving the new list of tuition and fees. The list shows across-the-board 5 percent cost increases for all types of students, whether in-state or out-of-state, undergraduate or graduate.
Mark Kelley was the only board member absent Friday.
Melvin Jones, WVSU’s vice president of business and finance, cited inflation, spending down of reserve funds and consecutive past state funding cuts (the Legislature didn’t cut higher education again for next fiscal year) as the reasons for the tuition and fees increase.
This academic year, tuition and required fees for in-state undergraduates taking 12 or more credit hours per semester totaled about $7,350 annually. Next academic year, that cost will total $7,710.
For similar “metro” undergraduates (out-of-state students but from counties near West Virginia), that cost will increase from $12,760 annually to $13,400. For other out-of-state undergraduates, the cost will rise from $16,350 to $17,170.
The annual cost will rise from $7,690 to $8,070 for in-state graduate students, and it’ll rise from $17,980 to $18,880 for out-of-state graduate students. There’s no discount for metro graduate students.
Annual rates for non-merit student housing in residence halls currently range from $4,390 to $7,440. Starting this fall, they’ll range from $4,610 to $7,820.
