The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education approved tuition and fee increases for public college and universities across the state.
The panel voted unanimously for the rate hike on Thursday. The increase averages 8.4 percent across the state.
The Associated Press reports the tuition fee increases range from Langston University's 3.7 percent increase to Rose State College's 13 percent hike.
Institutions of higher education requested the increase after the state legislature cut funding due to a budget shortfall shortfall.
Original Post:
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education meets Thursday to formally vote on tuition requests from the state's two dozen public colleges and universities.
Both the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University have asked to raise tuition by 7 percent, and the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City Community College each want a 9.9 percent hike.
During Wednesday's presentations, Higher Ed Chancellor Glen Johnson said Oklahoma is still one of the most affordable state in regards to average student cost, eCapitol’sTyler Talley reports:
He pointed to a recent statistic from the U.S. Department of Education that ranks the state as the third cheapest in average cost of attendance at a university or college. "We are pleased here today to hear from our campuses...this has been a historically difficult budget year, [and] our campuses and particularly our presidents have done a phenomenal job on the cost cutting initiatives on working with our students in an effort to bring these requests to us today," Johnson said in his opening remarks.
After Wednesday's meeting, UCO President Don Betz said the shift in the higher education burden from the states to the schools shows an inability to identify priorities, and that continuing to cut from higher education would eventually lead to a system that's no longer sustainable.
From Talley:
Betz centered his presentation making the case for UCO's and the other institutions' vital role to play in the future of what Oklahoma will be and is currently working counter-intuitively to meet its goals in shaping the state's future workforce. He said, in speaking with his colleagues, a lack of resources and funds have gotten to the point of "national embarrassment." "A very prominent business person in our state, after understanding the numbers, turned to me the other day and said, 'You know we're eating our seed corn...we're throwing our people to the wind,'" Betz said. "I didn't get involved in higher education in Oklahoma 46 years ago to watch the seed corn not multiply or throw our people to the wind." In a later interview, Betz contributed the shift in burden from the state to the institutions of higher education to a lack of resources and the state's inability to identify its priorities. He cited recent pushes towards advancing the funding for common education and corrections. "You have to ask yourself if those are the priorities as the state's priorities, what will you have as a society 20 years from now?" Betz asked. "If you're investing in common education and corrections, you will have students who are educated up to grade 12 and you will be able to accommodate more people in prison. I'm not quite sure that's the paradigm for societal success that we want to embrace."
East Central University president John Hargrave said he's worried future cuts will significantly degrade the quality of education.
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