Curators to vote on 5 percent tuition increase

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri System Board of Curators will vote on a 5 percent tuition increase on all four campuses Wednesday.

The special curators’ meeting will take place by phone conference.

The increase will be the largest in several years. State law had limited increases to the percentage as the yearly increase in the cost of living but legislation passed last year now allows for larger increases.

UM System President Mun Choi could raise tuition as much as 5.6 percent under the proposal if revenue from other sources lags.

With the proposed 5 percent increase, the cost for each credit hour for Missouri resident students for go up $14.20. The average student would pay $426 more in tuition per academic year.

According to the documents, tuition for 2019 was $284.80 per credit hour, or about $8,500 for the academic year for a full-time student.

With the proposed 5 percent increase, that cost would rise to about $8,970 per academic year.

Tuition has increased an average of 1.2 percent in the past five years.

MU freshman Marie Ridenhour said she is paying for her tuition by herself.

“Right now I’m already struggling to pay my bills and stuff because I have to pay for everything on my own,” Ridenhour said. “I don’t have anyone supporting me. It’s already hard enough as it is.”

“I hope they keep in mind when they discuss this that there are several thousand students here who have to take out all these loans, and they can barely pay for tuition as it is,” Ridenhour said.

Student Dayan Reynolds, who was on his way to talk to the cashier’s office about his student loans when he spoke with ABC 17 News on Tuesday, said he pays for his own tuition and he is already dealing with his loans. He said the situation is even worse for students with fewer resources than he has.

However, he said the university has limited options.

“It’s not even like you can blame the university entirely because it’s really at the hands of the state cause they don’t even want to listen to us and they just keep cutting our funding regardless,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds believes the state uses the funding to threaten students when they raise concerns about controversial topics.

“Every time Mizzou students spoke up, it was always ‘we’re going to cut your funding’ and then they do it to us anyway or they raise our tuition so it’s like what are we supposed to do at this point,” Reynolds.

He hopes the board will not support the increase in tuition.

“I would encourage the board to vote it down, and I would encourage them to stand up to the state instead,” Reynolds said.