Tuition increase minimal at USU Eastern

This archived article was written by: Nathaniel Woodward

Once again the state universities and Board of Regents voted to increase tuition at all state-run schools, including the University of Utah, Southern Utah University, Dixie State University, Weber State University, Snow College and Utah State University including its regional campuses and USU Eastern. While raising tuition, which has skyrocketed over the past several years, is a common occurrence, this year’s increase was a low 3.5 percent.
USU Eastern’s Greg Dart, vice-chancellor of student affairs and enrollment management, explains how that impacts USU Eastern students, “Each year, tuition is set by two factors, know as Tier 1 and Tier 2 tuition increases.
Tier 1 increases are proposed and adopted by the Utah System of Higher Education, and impact every campus in the system. This year, that increase was 3.5 percent. Tier 2 increases are proposed and adopted by the individual campuses, in our case, the USU system. This year there was no proposed increase for USU. If an increase would have been proposed, a truth in tuition hearing would have been held.
So, the bottom line for a student at USU Eastern is this: they will pay 3.5 percent more on tuition in 2016-2017 than 2015-2016. That is tied for the lowest increase in the state, and still, for lowest division students, the best overall educational value in Utah. There was also no increase for fees proposed for next year.”
The increase in tuition is being attributed to meeting a budget-strapped legislative session which saw most of the monies that could have gone to education being spent on lawsuits against the federal government and a highly controversial $53 million dollar payout for a coal port in Oakland, California. Each initiative was supported wholly by local Republican Carbon County commissioners Jae Potter, Jake Mellor and Casey Hopes.
Campus officials, including Chancellor Joe Peterson have been transparent in where students tuition and fees are allocated. Occasionally holding interactive meetings with concerned students and providing a tuition spreadsheet detailing, in depth, what increases in tuition will cost. Vice-Chancellor Dart provided a digital copy of the spreadsheet which is available at our website, www.usueagle.com