The delay is over and students must now pay the tuition increase they were supposed to pay fall term.
In-state students taking 14 to 18 credits can expect to pay an extra $6 to $60 for their tuition winter term, while out-of-state students taking 14 to 16 credits can expect to pay an extra $60 to $180.
The increase was scheduled to take place fall term, but members of ASUO and the Oregon Student Association lobbied the Oregon State Board of Higher Education to delay the increase until winter term.
ASUO Legislative Associate Sara Karns said it was important to postpone the increase in order to give the ASUO a chance to inform the student body.
“We felt it wasn’t really fair to have them register for classes and not realize they had to pay more,” Karns said.
Students who are taking 16 credits will bear the worst of the increase — $60 for in-state students and $180 for out-of-state students. And although students had fall term to prepare for the change, Karns said some students will still face difficulties paying for school.
“It affects all (students) in the sense that they all have to pay for it, but for students who are already struggling, these tuition increases are harder for them,” Karns said.
Students who don’t want to pay the extra tuition costs do have a loophole: take fewer credits or switch to classes offered before 9 a.m. or after 3 p.m.
Taking fewer credits is cost effective because the increase only affects students who take 14 to 18 credits, and taking classes in the early morning or in the late afternoon and evening will save students money because some of these classes are eligible for a 15 percent tuition discount.
But for students who want to drop a course, their window of opportunity is closing. If a student drops a course within the first two weeks of classes, they will receive an 85 percent refund. If a student drops a course in the third week, they’ll get a 50 percent refund. In the fourth week they’ll get a 25 percent refund, and after the fourth week there is no refund.
Although these tuition increases might seem difficult to bear, Senior Vice President and Provost John Moseley said they are insignificant compared with the increases the University might have to implement in the near future.
Continuing threats of lowered state-funding are forcing the University to rely more heavily on the funding it receives from tuition, Moseley said. He added that the administration is sympathetic with students’ complaints about increasing tuition, but it is the only way the University can continue to avoid cutting classes in the face of shrinking state support of higher education.
“Our priority has been don’t cut back on classes and programs because our students need to graduate on time,” Moseley said. “(Raising tuition is) a bad choice, but it’s the best of the bad choices we have.”
And it’s a choice the administration might have to make again.
The Oregon Legislature passed a bill requiring the Oregon University System to return $14 million in student tuition to the general fund by January 2005, and the University will loose approximately $4.7 million as a result.
In addition, Moseley said that if Measure 30 fails next month and the income tax surcharge is rejected, another $2.5 million hole will get punched into the University’s budget — a hole that must be filled by increasing tuition for the 2004-05 school year.
“We have cut everywhere else we can really cut,” he said. “At that point we’re going to have to start cutting classes.”
Moseley said that if Measure 30 fails, the University would have to cut approximately 250 courses to offset the funding loss. But since that is the last thing the administration wants to do, Moseley said they would pick the lesser of the two evils and opt to raise tuition once again.