Washington State University governing board eyes 10th straight tuition increase

The most expensive tuition and mandatory fees in the state of Washington could climb even higher.

The board of regents for Washington State University held its first meeting of the academic year Wednesday through Friday, and they’re eyeing an increase in the cost of attendance for Washington residents next year.

If the regents were to vote to increase tuition and fees for the 2026-27 school year, it’d come in November, and would mark a decade of yearly increases. Washington State University students already face the highest mandatory costs for the state’s public institutions, although exact costs can differ depending on degree, program level or educational setting.

Resident undergraduates at WSU can expect to be billed $13,888 for the upcoming school year in tuition and fees, according to figures provided to the regents Thursday.

Although rival University of Washington still has the highest tuition in the state, WSU’s mandatory fees put its total expected costs for resident students in the lead by $486, said Leslie Brunelli, executive vice president for finance and administration and chief financial officer.

While the regents set tuition rates independently, the fees are linked to a number of funds managed by student groups and must be approved after discussions with the board, explained Matt Skinner, vice-president of Finance and Business Services for WSU.

“What’s unique about these is each one of the fees has a dedicated group of students that oversees the use of those fees and brings forward the proposed rate changes here to the board,” Skinner said. “That includes housing and dining board, the student tech fees, student (services and activities) fees, and any other mandatory fees, like the rec center or the Compton Union Building on the Pullman campus.”

The proposed tuition increase does not have a set figure yet, as the mandatory allotted increase rate is set by the Washington State Office of Financial Management. State law tasks the office with calculating the allotted percentage increases to tuition at higher education outfits in the state based on the 14-year average median wage statewide.

WSU’s bookkeepers expect the allotted increase to be more than 3.3%. Taking the full amount would bring tuition to at least $12,060 for the 2026-27 academic year.

“And while you don’t see it on this presentation today,” Brunelli said, “what we are asking you to consider at the November meeting is allowing us to go to that cap, whatever that cap may be.”

Brunelli said a few circumstances have led her department to propose another increase.

The legislature’s process and policies for appropriating funds to the state’s higher education institutions changed in 2015, and resulted in more of the financial burden being placed on the students. Prior to the change, the state covered maintenance needs, associated rising costs and compensation increases, and the universities had agency over their revenues from tuition increases.

State lawmakers now use expected tuition revenues as part of their calculus for biannual appropriations, meaning that agency over tuition revenues was stripped. It’s now assumed that tuition is available to cover things like cost of living adjustments and maintenance needs.

Further complicating the equation for WSU’s biennium budget is a 1.5% cut in funding, or $9.9 million, compared to the 2023 through 2025 allotment. As the state is facing a multibillion shortfall, the Washington state Legislature made cuts in appropriations to a number of public institutions.

Last budgeting cycle, the state provided 66 cents of every dollar WSU needed, Brunelli said. Even more onus is now on the students, with the state only providing 56 cents on every dollar.

“As they widen that fund split, we have a bigger gap to fill in,” Brunelli said.

That gap may have grown even wider than state lawmakers anticipated, since they use enrollment data gathered every biennium. WSU’s enrollment numbers have been on a downward trend since the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from a record high systemwide enrollment of more than 31,600 in fall 2019, to just 25,477 this year.

“It’s just an interesting, complex problem that we have,” Brunelli said, “that the state is at the end of the day expecting us to raise our tuition rates because they are not filling in all the gaps that we have.”

The regents were not shy about sharing their discomfort with the financial outlook, and how it may intertwine with enrollment, recruitment and retention efforts. The only salve seemed to come in the progress made in assisting students with the costs of attending at the federal, state and university levels.

Over the past 10 years, the number of resident WSU undergraduates paying no tuition has grown by 5% to a total of 36%. The number of resident WSU undergraduate students graduating without any college loan debt has seen a dramatic increase, growing to a whopping 56.4% in 2024 from 39% a decade earlier, according to university data.

As the university does outreach regarding proposed increases ahead of the Nov. 13 vote, Regent Lisa Keohokalole Schauer encouraged a “holistic” approach that highlights the position the board’s been placed in.

“We have a state that puts us in a box that we can’t go beyond, and it’s difficult to sit in the seat and not say yes to the maximum, because we clearly need it,” she said. “But the effect of having those fees be so high just continues to feel like it has such a negative impact on students, and prospective students, that are looking at that whole cost.”