May 28, 2011 in City

WSU students facing 16 percent tuition hike

School lost $108 million to state cuts

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Washington State University students face another tuition hike after deep funding cuts to higher education recently passed in the state Legislature.

The WSU board of regents is expected to approve a 16 percent tuition hike in a special meeting June 6.

The tuition increase would raise the annual tuition paid by a typical in-state undergraduate student to $9,374. Tuition for nonresident undergraduate and graduate students would increase 8 percent, to $20,652 and $22,830, respectively.

WSU President Elson Floyd expressed concern about the increase in a post on his blog, but said it was necessary to protect programs and prevent even larger deficits in the university’s budget.

“Unfortunately, to maintain our programs in the face of these budget cuts, we do not have any other option,” he wrote. “Even with the revenue from this increase, and with the expectation that we will admit the largest freshman class in our history in the fall, our university will be operating with fewer dollars in the upcoming biennium than we did in 2009-’11.”

The state budget, which includes $535 million in cuts to colleges and universities and is awaiting Gov. Chris Gregoire’s signature, reduces WSU’s state appropriation by about $108 million during the 2011-’13 biennium, said WSU spokesman Darin Watkins.

That represents a 26 percent reduction in the university’s current maintenance budget level and means that, over four years, the university will have seen a state appropriated budget reduction of 52 percent, or $231 million, he said.

University officials have not decided how they will bridge that 26 percent gap.

“We took substantial cuts in administration last time,” he said. “We took substantial cuts in a number of programs that had to be eliminated. You’re going to see a mixture of all of those things again.”

However, he said, “We really do need to wait until students, administrators and faculty are back on campus before we make any large programmatic cuts. We’re postponing any major decisions until the fall.”

Normally university officials have an idea earlier in the year how much in cuts they need to make, Watkins said, and hold public forums in March or April to discuss where those cuts should come from.

But, “the numbers were really such a moving target this time there wasn’t really any way to do any thoughtful discourse on what should happen,” he said. “It was difficult for us to know where things were eventually going to land.”

The next hike comes after a 14 percent tuition increase in the 2009-’10 school year and another 14 percent in 2010-’11.

The news came as a shock to WSU student Kurtis Fenton, 21, of Port Orchard, Wash., who will graduate after fall semester.

“I was surprised,” said Fenton, a wildlife ecology major. “Not happy. That’s going to be a hefty, hefty increase.”

Fenton said his parents help him out a little financially, but he is paying for school mostly with student loans. With his debt piling up, increased tuition costs and the difficulties he faces finding employment in a crippled job market, Fenton said he’s worried about his future.

“I’ve definitely had a lot of friends graduate and you don’t hear great things about the percentage of people that get jobs,” he said. “I’m definitely worried about getting a job and paying back loans.”

He said he understands the need to make cuts in light of the state’s and the university’s deficits, but expressed concern about their impact on the caliber of the education he is paying so much for.

“Obviously the money has got to come from somewhere, but it’s kind of discouraging as a student when tuition keeps going up and up, but they keep cutting classes in your major,” he said. “They’re laying off positions in different departments and combining classes, so I think the quality of education is going down, while the prices are going up.”

University of Washington in-state undergraduate students also are likely to face a 16 percent increase in the fall, according to UW’s Office of Planning and Budgeting. The board of regents will consider tuition increases at its June 9 meeting.

15 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Pigrobin on May 28 at 10:13 a.m.

  How is the 16% increase being computed? The math isn’t working for me. Last year’s tuition for an in state undergrad WSU student was $8,592. If there is a 16% increase that would put tuition at $9,967. That’s about $600 more than what this article states. What gives?

• 

  hawken on May 28 at 10:54 a.m.

  Colleges and Universities are just as incompetent and wasteful in spending as the federal government. Only on a smaller scale.

  It’s all explained by the National Inflation Association documentary. You can watch the one hour documentary online.

  http://inflation.us/videos.html

• 

  WillyPeter on May 28 at 10:58 a.m.

  This semester our tuition and mandatory “fees” bill was $4,700+.That’s $9,400 total for the 2010-11 year. Sixteen % more means an additional $1,500+ for 2011-12. For a new total of $10,900+ for the school year.

  The schools fib when announcing the cost. Even they know how hard this incredible amount is for students and their families to swallow. When room and board are added, at about $10,000 for the year (WSU bulletin), the grand total for 2011-12, without any computation for spending money, auto, etc.figured in, is well over $20,000.

  And the Regents, all political appointees who answer to no one, and have been stupidly given the authority by our cowardly legislature to increase all these amounts….plan to do it again next year.

• 

  Pigrobin on May 28 at 11:06 a.m.

  The article was not about fees or total cost, I understand there is more involved when adding in fees, etc. The article has a front page headline in the Spokesman that blares “16% Tuition Hike.” However, the numbers in the article are more like a 9% increase. How did the Spokesman come up with the numbers? Either the 16% is wrong or the dollar value is wrong. Someone from the Spokesman needs to explain what is wrong with the article.

• 

  nutz4utwo on May 28 at 11:43 a.m.

  It is upsetting that WSU finds it necessary to build new buildings and charge obscene mandatory fees (in addition to raising tuition). Yearly mandator fees: Cub fee $240, Rec center $288, Stadium Renovation $50, Transit $50, Health fee $268. Do we really need all that junk? Does it make education better or is WSU a fancy health spa? The health fee sounds reasonable until one realizes you are required to have insurance and what was a $15 copay is now a $268 mandatory fee…

• 

  monkeyman on May 28 at 11:50 a.m.

  It is “up to” 16%. Depends on the program/degree etc.

  https://wsunews.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=26351&TypeID=25

  Look at the figure for PharmD non-resident tuition !!!

• 

  monkeyman on May 28 at 11:53 a.m.

  …and for DVM Non-Residents. No wonder pets are expensive to look after :)

• 

  hawken on May 28 at 1:11 p.m.

  nutz4utwo

  You nailed it.

  Either you have watched the one hour “College Conspiracy” documentary I posted above, or you are exceptionally astute on this topic.

  Either way, you absolutely got it right.

  College students should absolutely refuse to pay the higher tuition costs year and year after year.

  When this happens, providing that big government doesn’t “bail out” the incompetency of colleges and universities, only then, will colleges and universities be forced to become more responsible in their own financial management.

• 

  monkeyman on May 28 at 1:32 p.m.

  @ nutz4utwo at 11:43 a.m. May 28: ” …obscene mandatory fees… Do we really need all that junk? Does it make education better or is WSU a fancy health spa?”

  I guess you haven’t figured out that you pay for the whole “package”, including this guy’s salary - http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2011/may/28/gesser-returns-to-washington-state-in-off-field/

  Are you planning to spend $$ to buy a cougar decal/plate for your car, or do you already have those? ;)

• 

  westerly on May 28 at 1:41 p.m.

  Wow, that’s 8 percent more than inflation is running..another gov entity out of control with spending money..like Dist 81 entity, only on a larger scale at the college level. Thousands of admins at was and uw making !50,00 to $300,000 a year, tenured and jobs and raises every year for life.

• 

  monkeyman on May 28 at 1:41 p.m.

  http://lbloom.net/wsu09.html

  You can poke the salary of your friends, or foes…

• 

  ericdx on May 28 at 3:31 p.m.

  Actually Monkeyman, the salaries for the Athletic department come from a separate budget, which is paid for by athletic boosters, licensing fees from WSU merchandise (you know, all that studd you buiy that has the NCAA logo on the tag), and TV revenue. ($250 million dollar contracts with FOX by the PAC 12 anyone? $20 mil a year in athletic budget boosts per PAC 12 School from those TV revenues anyone?) So no, Jason Gesser’s salary is not coming from tuition, and maybe you should reserch a topic a little before you spout out. The fact that Atheltic department operations are separate from tuition funds has only been common knowledge for maybe 30 years… Come out and find the world, troll…

• 

  monkeyman on May 28 at 10:17 p.m.

  @ ericdicks

  OK. Did some quick research. Still no expert, but how do you explain the following article from 2009 I found.

  “Washington State University’s athletic department Thursday announced steps it is taking to compensate for an anticipated $350,000 decrease in University support as well as an expected drop in other revenue and a 14 percent tuition increase…”

  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/cougars/2009442475_wsubudget10.html

  Sounds to me the athletics get money from univ… :-o

• 

  flutieflakes on May 28 at 11:47 p.m.

  Dude, monkeyman, you should really try reading the articles you post first. The “compensation” for lost revenues was achieved by cutting costs. If you want a better idea of the athletic department’s sources of income in THIS DECADE, the 2010’s, you should read this story printed in our wonderful newspaper, dated just two weeks ago:

  “Cougars embrace windfall from new conference TV contract”

  But hey, at least you’re objective and unbiased in your “research”.

• 

  monkeyman on May 29 at 12:19 a.m.

  All I am trying to say is that the athletics and tuition are connected as part of the college “package”. I didn’t say that athletics gets all the money from the univ, via tuition or otherwise…

  …unless something changed in this decade.