May Tuition 2002 Campus Update

MSU Moorhead
Office of the President
203 Owens Hall
1104 Seventh Ave. S.
Moorhead, MN 56563
(218) 477-2243

May Tuition 2002 Campus Update

May 24, 2002

To: The Campus Community

From: President Barden

Re: Tuition and Fees, Out-of-State Non-Reciprocity Tuition Waivers, Performance Class Tuition Waivers

2002-2003 Tuition and Fees: At the meeting of the Board of Trustees on May 21 and 22, The FY03 Budget parameters were finalized for MSUM’s revenue. This means that we now know the allocation of state appropriations as well as the tuition and fee rates for 2002-2003.

The board members engaged in lengthy debate over the system-wide requests for increases in tuition. Several board members and student association representatives are troubled by the high rate of increase in tuition and fees for the 34 state colleges and universities in the last two years.

Within boundaries set by the board and the Office of the Chancellor, a campus can request an increase in tuition and fees specific to its own circumstances. With the support of our Student Senate, MSUM requested an increase in tuition of 9.7%, which was approved. Our request was based on considerable consultation with the Student Senate.

The increase in tuition and fees does have a significant impact on the price to a student for attending MSUM, as shown below. But I believe MSUM is still a high value investment for students, providing an excellent education for a modest price (indeed, our price is the second lowest only to Metropolitan State University among the state universities).

FY 2002 Annual Tuition	FY 2003 Annual Tuition	FY 2003 Annual Tuition Increase	FY 2003 Tuition Change	FY 2002 Annual Tuition & Fees	FY 2003 Annual Tuition & Fees	FY 2003 Annual Tuition & Fee Increase	FY 2003 Tuition & Fee % Change
$2,874	$3,155	$280	9.7%	$3,192	$3,517	$325	10.2%

Out-of-State Tuition Waivers: The Board of Trustees also authorized MSUM to waive out-of-state tuition for all non-resident (and non-reciprocity) U.S. students who meet regular admission standards and remain in good academic standing. This change in tuition policy will function as a four-year pilot study of the impact of the change on enrollment and viability. Both MSUM’s Academic Policy Advisory Committee and the Student Senate provided strong support for this initiative.

Performance Class Waiver: MSUM was also authorized to waive resident tuition for a one-credit course, a “University Performance Class.” Student performance groups that present public performances are central to the co-curricular and extra-curricular learning of all students and central to the university’s outreach to the campus and community-at-large. Waiving the tuition for a one-credit university performance class will encourage talented students to tryout, and when selected, participate in such performance groups. Further, MSUM seeks to better represent the productivity of the conductors, directors and coaches for whom teaching and mentoring a performance group is a significant portion of their assigned workload.

Here too, the request to the board was strongly supported by the Student Senate and the Academic Policy Advisory Committee.