OKLAHOMA CITY — OU President David L. Boren said he expects the university to be able to keep its tuition and mandatory fees steady from this year to next at a meeting of the OU Board of Regents Wednesday.
Boren said he hopes to prevent an increase in tuition and mandatory fees and that, despite a state budget shortfall that could be as high as $600 million, administrators have a “very, very good” chance of meeting that goal.
However, at the same meeting, Boren recommended that the regents approve a slate of college- and course-specific fee increases that will affect students in the colleges of business, journalism, and arts and sciences, as well as students at the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.
These fees are not considered part of the mandatory fees that are charged to every student enrolled at the university, but they are required of students enrolled in specific courses or colleges.
The fees approved by the regents include a $3 per-credit hour addition to the College of Arts and Sciences’ enrichment fee, a $3 per-credit hour addition to the Michael F. Price College of Business‘ enrichment fee and a $5 per-credit hour addition to the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s enrichment fee.
Increases to or additions of course-specific fees for items such as art supplies and lab equipment were approved for dozens of classes.
There will also be a new $12 per-credit hour fee charged to all students entering school on the Norman campus or at the OU College of Law in fall 2009 or later.
According to the regents’ meeting agenda, the increases in the enrichment fees will allow the affected colleges to increase the number of instructors in some programs.
The revenue from the campus-wide fee that will be applied to students who enroll for the first time in the fall will be used to “aggressively recruit and retain excellent faculty,” and regularly renovate and update classroom space.
Boren said student demand for the latest technology, and other universities’ occasional attempts to lure OU faculty away with promises of higher pay, made the fee necessary.
Last week, the board that governs Oklahoma State University refused to grant OSU President Burns Hargis the power to potentially raise mandatory fees at OSU.
“I’d be very surprised if OSU doesn’t have to reconsider,” its decision to freeze mandatory fees, Boren said after the OU regents meeting.
Boren spoke at length before OU’s regents voted on the fee increases, saying that the college- and course-specific fees were necessary to keep classes operating.
Boren said the new fees will keep OU “treading water” through a difficult fiscal year and hopefully allow the administration to avoid raising tuition and mandatory fees next year.
“That’s our goal and we’re really dedicated to it,” he said.
The regents approved the proposal unanimously without questions or discussion.
Boren’s statement that the university should be able to freeze tuition and mandatory fees comes in spite of bleak budget predictions for the state. Oklahoma is expected to register a shortfall of between $3 million and $600 million. As a result, Boren said he doesn’t expect higher education to receive much, if any, new funding.
In 2008, Boren and other Oklahoma university presidents pledged to halt tuition and mandatory fee increases at their institutions if the legislature appropriated $80 million in new funds to higher education this year.
That now appears unlikely, but Boren said a hiring freeze and spending cuts at OU should allow it to hold tuition and mandatory fees steady anyway.
Boren said the university wouldn’t be able to stave off tuition and fee increases forever without adversely affecting the quality of education offered at the university.
“This is a balance between cost and excellence,” Boren said. “Unfortunately, excellence is not free.”
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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
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libertarian 3 years, 3 months ago
Excellence may not be free, but we can certainly put a price on it!
libertarian 3 years, 3 months ago
So its not a "mandatory" fee per se, but a fee that all students in Business, Journalism, and Arts & Sciences are required to pay? That's what, 80% of the student body anyways? And all so you can continue to claim that OU has low tuition and fees.
JWade 3 years, 3 months ago
I've heard this from Boren before. He says that he plans to not raise tuition so he can get everyone all twitterpated with the notion. So he then has a motivated base when it goes to legislatures and regents on what OU with appropriate. Therefore, we get more than otherwise.
But then they never give what Boren says he wants, so he comes to students at the beginning of the year and says "Because of underfunding from the state legislature and rising energy costs (or rising transportation costs, continuing economic crisis, or increasing hot tub bubble content, etc.) we must regrettably raise tuition again this year."
It's truly a bit of song dance, and assuredly, good politik'n.
Check the archive for similar series of stories in the past. Some were written by that Gerald guy. Boren does this two-step every year. ... but don't get me wrong. It's damned impressive how he maximizes the amount the legislatures are willing to give.
For anyone that thinks I'm just being cynical, wait for the regents budget meeting in early summer and put your money where your mouth is. Checks may be made payable to JWade C/O of the OU Daily...
Also, in the past there has always been a Boren-mandated "Day at the Capitol" where stuco officers organize a "student organized and led" morning at the Capitol where they "demand" money for higher education. I don't know how down the new Amanda administration is for these things, but the former administration tended to jump exactly how high they were asked to for these things.
DDFox11 3 years, 3 months ago
This is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while from someone with such power. I mean really, does Boren think the student body consists of solely freshmen who blindly pay their annual (and unexplainable) fees? The business, journalism and arts and sciences colleges are the three highest enrolled colleges on campus as far as I'm concerned. Unless he releases a budget showing exactly why those three colleges should receive additional fees, then this would be exactly as if Obama were to say:
"We are going to tax all the Business people, Lawyers, Doctors and Media personnel in America, but we are not going to raise taxes."
I find something inherently wrong about that.
I understand that Boren wants OU to remain competitive with other schools in the Big XII, and with other schools across the nation for that matter, however this proposal fails to make any sense to me.
Show me a spreadsheet that clearly shows that Price, Gaylord and CoAS simply take more money to operate than the campus is able to support. Then I'll lay quiet. However, I was under the assumption that this university was more of an "all for one" type of corporation, if you will - in that, costs and funding were not segregated by college (or not solely claimed as individual assets). Although, admittedly I cannot claim to have much knowledge to these specific matters.
I do know, however, that as a student of one of those colleges I would much rather not pay these new "non-mandatory" fees. I am well aware that excellence is not free, however, I have no interest in paying a fee that will ultimately pay for someone else's excellence... at least not at this point in time.