Washington State University tuition going up by 2.5% after regents approve proposal

Tuition is going up at Washington State University.

During the Washington State Board of Regents meeting Friday, two topics were voted on: the action to increase tuition for the next academic year by 2.5% and three actions having to do with the athletic budget and revenue loss in athletics due to COVID-19.

The action item to increase tuition by 2.5% was met with one objection during the vote but still passed.

“We need to make sure we are providing the best experience we can to the students who are paying a lot of money to this university,” said Arliegh Caynan, the student regent, in regard to the tuition increase proposal. “Making sure we are providing for them and not forgetting about them. Because I think with Covid this is a really good time to see that the way we provide education to our students is going to change, and moving forward it would be a good opportunity to reevaluate how every component of WSU is doing financially, like, what we’ve done with the athletics budget.”

The passing of this proposal means that tuition will rise $255 per year for instate undergraduate students, $295 for out of state undergraduate students, $295 for instate graduate students and $647 for out of state graduate students.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Nolan Thomaswick, the incoming president of ASWSU Global, the student-government group for distance learners, noted his concerns about the tuition increase and how they affect different students depending on the campus they are studying on.

“On the topic of raising tuition, many global students are nontraditional students, supporting themselves or even family,” Thomaswick said. “ And this doesn’t even factor in other yearly expenses such as textbooks and online labs.”

He also noted that they received note of the tuition increase last Friday and did not have enoughtime to question and consider the proposal.

Overall, this item passed with one vote in opposition.

The other action items all passed unanimously and had to do with the athletic budget.

“It’s a good plan and I think the board of regents feels more confident with what we are seeing and are looking forward to being able to tick away at that,” said Marty Dickinson, the vice chair of the board of regents.

The items were a revised version of the 2021 athletic budget, the 2022 athletic budget and the approval of a general revenue obligation to the resolution to authorize the issuance of sale of bonds or other obligations to offset revenue losses in WSU intercollegiate athletics due to COVID-19 .