YSU With rise in tuition, officials expect students to use loan fund

What are you going to do?' one YSU student said about the tuition increase.
By RON COLE
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University officials expect more students will dip into a special emergency loan fund to help pay for tuition this summer.
"The need may be a little greater now," said Walt Ulbricht, university spokesman.
YSU trustees formally approved an 8.9-percent tuition increase Wednesday for the fall semester, which begins in August.
Here's the breakdown: Full-time, undergraduate Ohio students will pay $2,498 for fall classes, up $204 from the spring semester. For out-of-state students living within 100 miles of Youngstown, the rate will be $3,554 for the fall semester, a $288 increase. Out-of-state students living outside the 100-mile region will pay $4,874, up $396.
It is the biggest one-time increase in tuition at YSU in at least a decade. It's also the third increase in a year. Tuition jumped 5.1 percent last fall semester and 5.5 percent this spring.
University officials say the increase is needed to help offset a $3 million cut in state funding.
"If we're going to maintain quality programs, we need to generate the revenue," YSU President David Sweet said.
Similar increases will be implemented at other Ohio public universities as the state struggles with a budget shortfall.
Nationally, some universities are contemplating even greater increases. University of Iowa officials, for instance, have proposed a 19-percent tuition increase, while student costs at the University of North Carolina are slated to jump 21 percent, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
To help ease the burden, YSU trustees agreed to again set up a $245,000 emergency loan program to help students make up the increased costs. Students can borrow an amount equal to the tuition increase and won't have to pay it back until the end of the semester, YSU officials said. There is no interest or application fee.
YSU developed a similar fund in December to address a $120 tuition increase for the spring semester. Only 40 of YSU's 12,000 students took out the emergency loans for spring semester.
"We were quite surprised at how low it was," said Tom Vukovich, interim executive director of enrollment management.
"We expect a larger number to take advantage of it this time," Ulbricht said.
Reactions: Meanwhile, students roaming campus Wednesday afternoon seemed unfazed by the tuition change.
"I guess there's no reason to get all excited and mad about it," sophomore Julie Ann McCall said outside the university's Welcome Center. "There's nothing I can do about it."
Billy Job, also a sophomore, agreed.
"What are you going to do?" he said. "Everything just keeps getting more expensive."
That was Jill Gleason's feelings as well. A senior, Gleason said tuition increases have become an annual rite.
"I've seen my tuition go up so much I stopped counting," she said while shooting pool in the student center. "I just don't think about it anymore."
Trustees also changed the university's bulk-hour tuition rate. Currently, students taking 12 to 18 academic credits a semester are considered full time and are charged the same bulk rate. In the fall, the bulk rate will change to 12 to 16 credits. Students taking more than 16 credits will pay $122 more per credit.
In addition, students staying in YSU dormitories will pay 7 percent more next school year. The rate will jump from $4,970 to $5,320 a year.