OU President David Boren notified students and parents Thursday there would be no across-the-board increase in tuition and fees next year.
The university distributed the message by e-mail and in letters to parents. Boren will officially make the recommendation at the next OU Board of Regents meeting on June 24.
“I fully expect that my recommendation will be approved because our Board of Regents has been strong in its support of keeping student costs to the minimum needed to maintain excellence,” Boren said in the e-mail sent to students. “While we are holding down costs, we are committed to maintaining the university’s high standard of excellence. In spite of a short fall in revenues, the governor and the state legislature did their best to avoid cuts in education budgets. In addition, OU made approximately $8 million in internal savings through freezes in hiring, in compensation, and other areas.”
In July 2008, Boren implemented a hiring freeze and placed a limit on the issuance of bonds for new spending projects. He first revealed his intention to freeze tuition and fees at the January Regents meeting.
In the e-mail, Boren thanked faculty and staff who are going without compensation increases this year, and commended Gov. Brad Henry and members of the state legislature for working to help education while functioning with a tight budget.
OU press secretary Jay Doyle said although across-the-board fees are not being increased at the university, it is up to the college deans whether they feel increases are necessary.
“[A fee increase] is up to the deans of each individual college,” Doyle said, “but it has to go before the Board of Regents before increases are approved.”
Doyle said tuition was also kept constant from 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. He said he was unsure whether fees were held at the same level during those years.
Last month, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approved a $1.124 billion state higher education budget for next year. The budget is an increase of approximately 2.8 percent over last year.
Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis also said they would not increase tuition and fees next year.
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TheJR 2 years, 11 months ago
Glad to hear it, after the "single-digit" increase of 9.99% last year.