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YSU trustee committee approves 2.4% tuition hike for fall semester
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Full-time Youngstown State University undergraduate students will be paying $94 more per semester next fall, while graduate students pay $158 more per semester under a plan approved by a university trustees committee.
The increases must be approved by the full trustees board, which is set to meet March 12.
The finance and facilities committee at a meeting Thursday approved the increases, which amount to about 2.4 percent for undergraduate students and 3 percent for graduate students. They are the same percentage hikes approved between fall 2012 and fall 2013. A 3.5 percent increase was approved between fall 2011 and fall 2012.
“Even with the increase, YSU is still $1,600 below the statewide average and about $2,000 below the statewide median” of Ohio’s other public comprehensive universities, said Neal McNally, director of budget planning and treasury operations.
The increases will generate about $2 million in revenue, which university officials say is needed to offset declining state funding and enrollment.
Trustee Harry Meshel cast the lone dissenting vote on the increases.
The increase raises from about $3,950 to about $4,044 the cost per semester for resident undergraduate students. The increase is within the tuition cap set by the state. The cap limits annual tuition increases for full-time undergraduate students to $188 per year.
The per-semester cost for resident YSU graduate students increases from about $5,283 to about $5,441.
The tuition plan approved by the committee also includes a continuation of the university’s Affordable Tuition Advantage, a program that offers lower out-of-state charges for undergraduate students in 16 Western Pennsylvania counties, four West Virginia counties and one in New York.
Tuition for those students increases from $4,070 to $4,164 per semester.
Undergraduate tuition for other out-of-state students increases from $6,950 to $7,044 per semester.
Per-semester tuition for nonresident graduate students within the Affordable Tuition Advantage counties increases from $5,403 to $5,561, and for nonregional graduate students, it increases from $6,888 to $7,046 per semester.
The committee’s vote also would increase room and board rates at university halls 2 percent. That change would bring in an additional $150,000 in income.