SPOKANE — For the first time in 27 years, tuition will not increase next year for students at Washington State University.
The WSU Board of Regents on Monday rescinded a previously approved 2 percent tuition increase for the 2013-2014 school year.
The state’s 2013-2015 operating budget, signed Sunday by Gov. Jay Inslee, states there will be no tuition increases at any of the state’s public universities for the 2013-14 school year.
The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reported that in the past four years alone, tuition at WSU has risen by about 70 percent, to about $11,000 per year.
“I have been a regent for 10 years, and this is the first year I have not had to vote to raise tuition, and it’s a real, real pleasure,” said WSU Board of Regents chairwoman Connie Niva, of Everett.
Washington State president Elson Floyd said the legislative session was challenging but ultimately productive. The Legislature funded WSU as if it had implemented a tuition increase, Floyd said.
“This is a great day for our students and a wonderful day for their families and very much consistent with what we’ve been trying to do, that is to keep tuition as low as possible,” he said.
Taylor Hennessey, president of the Associated Students of Washington State University, said student government leaders were also pleased with the new budget.
“I could not be more proud to call myself a Coug,” Hennessey said.
While WSU students will not have any tuition increases next year, the Board of Regents previously has approved a $10 increase in the services and activities fee on the Pullman and Spokane campuses and a $3 increase in the Student Recreation Center fee in Pullman.
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