By KYLE ODEGARD
| Posted: Saturday, June 7, 2008 12:00 am
Gazette-Times reporter
All West Coast public colleges see similar hikes
Annual tuition at Oregon State University will go up 3.2 percent - to $4,608 - in the fall for undergraduate residents taking 15 credits. The Oregon Board of Higher Education approved the tuition hike during its meeting Friday.
Overall, the Oregon University System increased in-state undergraduate tuition by an average of 3.4 percent at all seven of the state's public four-year universities.
"Generally, we tend to be sort of middle-of-the pack when it comes to tuition," said Di Saunders, spokeswoman for the OUS.
California college students will pay much more to enroll next fall.
Regents at the University of California system regents voted for a 7.4 percent resident undergrad tuition increase for the next school year, increasing annual tuition costs to $7,126, according to the Associated Press.
Attending a California State University system school will cost 10 percent more in the fall than it did last year. At those schools, undergraduate tuition increases to $3,048 a year.
At the University of Washington, tuition and fees for in-state residents are $6,400, and officials are considering increasing that by the maximum 7 percent allowed by law, according to the Associated Press.
OSU's tuition rate appears to be the second-lowest in Oregon's university system. However, that figure doesn't include universal and resource fees. Every other state university has included such fees except for the Oregon Institute of Technology.
Universal fees include billings for health, registration and student services. At OSU, they total $526.30 per student. Resource fees are charged by certain departments to supplement the cost of education. OSU has until 2011 to fold the universal and resource fees into its tuition, a move required by the state and meant to increase the transparency of the costs students face.
Out-of-state undergraduate tuition at OSU will increase by 4.7 percent to $6,187 in the fall for students taking 15 credits. That was above the statewide average increase of a 4.5 percent increase.
Resident graduate students who take 12 credits will pay $3,132 a year for tuition at OSU next fall, an increase of 3 percent, while nonresidents will be charged $5,076.
Housing at OSU also will increase. At Callahan Hall, for example, room and board with a premium meal plan will jump 7.3 percent, to $8,457.
In other news, the board authorized the chancellor or a designee to seek Emergency Board approval of a budget request for $250,000 to initiate new research and extension efforts for bee health. Beekeepers, farmers and other agricultural industry representatives had met at OSU in April to discuss the problem and potential solutions.
Graduate certificates in fisheries management, as well as marine resource management, also were approved for OSU, effective in spring 2008. Both will be the only such programs in the Pacific Northwest.
OSU also was authorized to enter into a lease with the Department of State Lands for property in Netarts Bay, at a cost of $275 per year. This submerged and submersible land is the primary site for maintaining broodstock oysters for OSU's Molluscan Broodstock Program.
The university also is working with the Nature Conservancy on restoring native oysters on the leased ground.
New tuition rates
In-state undergrad tuition, 15 credits
Oregon State University - $4,608*
Eastern Oregon University - $4,944
Oregon Institute of Technology - $4,860*
Portland State University - $4,905
SouthernOregon University - $4,326
University of Oregon - $5,202
Western Oregon University - $4,725
*Does not include resource fees
Kyle Odegard covers Oregon Sate University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.