Last-minute funding to reduce rise in tuition

A last-minute legislative infusion of $15 million into the Oregon University System’s operating budget is set to reduce in-state undergraduate tuition increases from 4.5 to 3.5 percent in what Dr. Melody Rose, the interim chancellor of OUS, called “the lowest [tuition] increase in many years.”

Before this, annual tuition was set to rise nearly 5 percent across the state. At PSU, annual in-state undergraduate tuition was scheduled to increase by 4.5 percent, to $6,678, effective fall 2013—a $288 rise. According to a June 21 press release detailing the original tuition increases, it would have cost the state $50 million to freeze tuition at 2012–13 levels.

At press time, the precise impact of Monday’s funding infusion at each of Oregon’s public universities (including PSU) was still being calculated. However, were PSU’s upcoming 4.5 percent tuition increase to be reduced to the new, state-average 3.5 percent, students could expect to pay $224 more than they did last year—$64 less than they would have without the 11th-hour funding.

This reduction of the 2013 tuition increase was announced along with the passage of a larger OUS capital budget for 2013–15. The OUS capital budget allows Oregon’s public universities to invest in and pursue various expansion and reconditioning projects. At PSU, this type of funding is being directed toward the renovation and expansion of the School of Business Administration and the Peter W. Stott Center.

According to a July 8 press release, the capital budget passed Monday at $567 million—for “a substantial increase” of 104 percent over the $278.5 million approved for 2011–13.

This increase comes on the heels of a similar increase in the organization’s 2013–15 operating budget. The new operating budget, approved in June at $761.5 million, is up 10 percent over 2011–13 funding, and follows a 16 percent decrease in funding experienced by OUS for the previous funding biennium, in 2011–13.