CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Marshall University’s board of governors approved a 9-percent tuition increase for in-state and out-of-state students.
The increase is, in part, a response to lowered state funding. Marshall, including its medical school, took a $4.2 million state funding cut in the budget the Legislature passed this month.
More broadly, the board of governors was approving a $119.3 million operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
“We really felt that to fix our budget, we needed to go with this rate, and it doesn’t totally fix the budget,” Marshall President Jerome Gilbert told MetroNews.
The decision means that starting this fall, full-time, resident undergraduate students at Marshall will pay $322 more per semester, undergraduate students who live in the metro counties of Kentucky and Ohio will pay $440 more, and non-resident undergraduate students will pay $737 more.
Tuition for most resident graduate students will go up $334 per semester, with metro graduate students paying $469 more and non-resident graduate students paying $806 more.
Mark Robinson, interim senior vice president for finance, said Marshall’s budget includes projected revenue of $42.7 million in state funding and about $61.7 million from net tuition and fees. Robinson added that residence hall and meal plan rates will not increase for the 2017-18 academic year.
Gilbert said the Marshall University Foundation Inc. will make additional student financial assistance available this year to help families offset the tuition increase.
Gilbert added the university will begin a capital campaign in the coming months to raise money, in part, for additional need-based scholarships. Gilbert said the university also will invest $166,000 this year in research opportunities for undergraduate students and $233,000 for increased student activities and service learning programs.
“We know this will be a hardship for some students,” Gilbert said.
He added that the university heard legislators’ calls for state agencies to cut costs.
“We’re going to have to do things including looking at combining some colleges and some departments to save administrative costs and continuing to freeze positions in the next year and other steps we can take to try to save money so we can have a budget that is good for the university,” Gilbert said.
With these latest cuts, Marshall’s state funding has been reduced by more than $14.5 million in the last five years.
Since 2013, Marshall has saved more than $6.2 million by eliminating 136 positions through attrition, mothballing an inefficient building, eliminating low-demand academic programs and combining areas of concentration and undertaking a number of energy-efficiency measures in university facilities.
Elected leaders have suggested that the state budget could have similar constraints next year, causing university leaders like Gilbert to start thinking ahead.
“We’re not really sure what will happen next year,” Gilbert said. “We’re anxious to get through this year and start looking at next year. I think we’re going to have to have some additional revenues in the state. Otherwise, they’re going to end up cutting us again.
“I don’t think it’s fair to students and parents to pass along the cost to them, and that’s essentially what the Legislature is doing by cutting our programs.”