Combining tuition and room and board, beginning this year it will cost $17,388 per year for a freshman student living on campus taking 30 credit hours.

Incoming freshmen and undergraduate transfer students will pay $324 per credit hour in the fall, a 6.6 percent increase. The Central Michigan University Board of Trustees unanimously approved the increase at its Thursday meeting over two other options. The 6.6 figure ranks third-highest for the seven universities that have set tuition thus far

for the fall.

Only Grand Valley State (13.2 percent), Michigan Tech (8.2 percent) and Michigan State (6.8 percent) raised tuition more.

At the April trustees’ meeting, the board decided incoming freshmen and students returning to residence halls will face a 6 percent increase in room and board rates for the 2008-09 school year. Room and board for incoming students will go from $7,236 to $7,668 per year for a standard room with an unlimited meal plan.

Overall, this change will not affect around 70 percent of CMU students. Last year’s freshmen and incoming students paid $304 per credit hour. The hike only applies to those not covered under the CMU Promise, a fixed tuition plan that was not applied to fall’s incoming students.

“This is certainly a lot easier to set tuition for one year than the four plus one like we were doing with the Promise,” Board Chair Jeffrey Caponigro said. “Literally everything is going up in term of prices so there is still a variable risk in this. Obviously we have to look into a lot of assumptions when we set this sort of thing.”

The board approved the 6.6 percent increase over a 3.9 and 7.9 percent increase, the board’s other two options.

Option A would have raised tuition to $316 per credit hour and option C would have placed it at $328 per credit hour.

Out of the three options A, B and C – Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services David Burdette advised that option A would be a backward step for the university while B would maintain it at an operational level.

“With option A, which just is bare bones continuing, we would not be able to acheive sustainability in some of the programs we want to achieve,” Burdette said. “Option B would be the basic sustainability budget. It would allow us to do some of those things we talked about, would allow us more competitiveness in marketing and admissions area, would allow us to fund capital deferred maintenance.”

He said option A would lead to cutting deferred maintence, any new faculty and the ability of a sustainability program.

The increase in tuition places CMU eighth out of Michigan’s 15 public universities in average undergraduate tuition, assuming each university raised tuition 6 percent. For incoming freshmen, CMU is fourth in the state behind Michigan State University.

Central was ranked 12th in the state last year.

Ten years ago, in-state undergraduate tuition was set at $101.50 per credit hour. Five years ago it was $148.75. Tuition has increased 219 percent in 10 years for incoming freshmen and 118 percent in five years.

Caponigro said the board never wants to raise tuition more than it needs to, so it chose a reasonable option for the students that would still accomplish goals for the university.

“Our responsibility too is to make sure the university can maintain the types of programs, quality programs, that we have over the years. We have to weigh all that and make sure we’re competitive,” he said.

Caponigro said increases in fixed costs alter the overall budget.

“Cost increases and the cost to maintain everything the way it is now, coupled with the fact that there’s a risk of costs going up even further,” he said.

The trustees also approved increases per credit hour for master’s and doctorate-level classes.

The master’s degree was increased by 6.4 percent – to $413 per credit hour, jumping up from last fall’s $388 per credit hour. This leaves CMU ninth out of Michigan’s 15 public universities in average master’s tuition.

In addition, doctoral rates were increased 6.6 percent – to $470 per credit hour from last fall’s $441 per credit hour. This leaves CMU seventh out of nine public universities offering doctoral programs.

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