Wichita State seeks tuition, fee hikes from regents

Wichita State officials are asking the state to approve a 3.6 percent tuition increase – the most they can request under a cap imposed by the Legislature.

Resident undergraduates taking 15 credit hours at Wichita State would pay $3,040 in tuition each semester if the Kansas Board of Regents approves the request. That is an increase of $105.75 over last year.

The tuition increase is projected to bring in about $2.5 million in new revenue, according to documents submitted to the regents. Total revenue from tuition is an estimated $84.6 million.

The university also sought fee increases of 10.9 percent, or $76.50, over last year, for a total of $774.75 in required fees.

But the regents decided Wednesday to cap fees at 3.6 percent as well. That left university officials scrambling to revise numbers ahead of the scheduled regents vote on the proposed increases Thursday.

According to documents filed with the regents, WSU initially requested several increased fees, specifically:

▪ An online course fee increase from $75 per credit hour to $92 per credit hour. Of that increase, $9 would go to the general student fee budget, $3 would go to the Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and $5 would go to the online education budget.

▪ An Intercollegiate Athletic fee increase from $9.55 per credit hour to $10.70 per credit hour. The increase would help offset the implementation of NCAA allowances for student athletes to have additional scholarships for things like attendance, meal plans and travel expenses.

▪ A new technology fee of $2.50 per credit hour to go toward technology upgrades and replacement.

▪ A new transportation fee of $1 per credit hour to offset the campus shuttle service. According to information provided by the university, it spends $765,199 annually on Overland Charter, the contractor for the shuttle system.

Nearly all of the universities asked the regents for 3.6 percent tuition increases, according to documents filed with the regents. Several said some of the increased revenue would go toward faculty and staff pay increases.

Other requests

WSU president John Bardo also sought the regents’ approval to extend in-state tuition to Oklahoma City and Tulsa-area students and to give lesser tuition breaks to other residents in Oklahoma and Texas.

He said it could be a way to boost economic growth along the burgeoning I-35 corridor.

Bardo also proposed professional development courses with varying, “market-based” tuition rates. He told the regents that the university has experimented with short courses aimed at nontraditional students and working adults.

The university, he said, is in preliminary negotiations with an agency with noncredit programs that would like to have credit. He envisions that program, if accepted, could become a national program and part of distance education.

“This has real implications for enrollment,” he said. “We’re talking as many as 400 to 500 people that could be affected by this.”

The university’s enrollment has hovered at about 15,000 for years.

The regents decided to defer a decision on the in-state tuition proposal to Thursday and defer the professional development course discussion to a later date.

This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Wichita State seeks tuition, fee hikes from regents."