Truth in Tuition: Zero-percent Increase

Published: March 20, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minutes

Responding to widespread concern over rising tuition, Southern Utah University President Scott L Wyatt announced a zero-percent second-tier tuition increase for the coming year.

He will discuss this decision as well as the implications of statewide tuition hikes in the University’s annual Truth in Tuition Hearing for students on Wednesday, March 26, at 2 p.m. in the Great Hall.

Second-tier tuition adjustments, which are left to each institution’s discretion in the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), is paired with a state-wide first-tier tuition increase among all colleges and universities across the state. SUU’s zero-percent increase added to USHE’s projected four-percent first-tier increase positions SUU for its smallest tuition hike since 1999 for the coming school year.

The statewide, regent mandated first-tier tuition increase will be finalized and announced in Wednesday’s Truth in Tuition Hearing.

This is the second year in a row the University has not imposed any second-tier hikes.

Of the University’s plans to back off on what have in recent years proven fairly substantial second-tier tuition increases, Wyatt said, “There has not been a day since I arrived on campus when somebody hasn’t said they were worried about the cost of higher education.”

The University’s concerns are not unique among a national higher education system full of substantial price hikes in recent years. However, Wyatt feels it is the University’s “social responsibility to be as good as we can in making the American dream available to everybody.”

All students, as well as faculty and staff, are welcome to attend the upcoming Truth in Tuition Hearing, where Wyatt and members of his cabinet will field student input and present the University’s finalized plan for the coming academic year.

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