The Board of Trustees voted not to increase tuition and fees for the 2020-21 academic year in a called meeting of the Finance and Administration Committee on Wednesday.
According to B.J. King, the chief financial officer for Business and Finance, a recommended tuition increases of 1.66% for in-state undergraduate and graduate students, and a $64 annual fee increase, was discussed at the February Board of Trustees meeting, which would have generated $1.65 million. Those funds would have funded a 1.5% salary pool increase and operational increases for the campus.
“All this was discussed in our February meeting, but in light of the current economic challenges that we are faced – and that our community is faced, our students are faced – with the COVID-19 pandemic, staff is proposing no increase in tuition and mandatory fees for the 2021 year, and this is contingent on the approval of the governor’s budget,” said King.
ETSU President Brian Noland said it was “beyond rare” for an institution to recommend no fee increase and said he could not recall a year in which there was no form of fee increase. Noland said the recommendation to not raise tuition or fees stemmed from the economic issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“On days when I’m leaving the house and coming into the office, I pass by restaurant after restaurant that’s closed,” said Noland. “Every time I go by the Firehouse, I think of the number of ETSU students who work there and are dependent upon those jobs to help pay tuition, fees, bills and living expenses. Yesterday, I got up and read that the Carnegie was closing, and people in this community are struggling. We could be approaching 25-30% unemployment at a national level, and I just could not in good conscience recommend to the board a fee increase given the things that are happening around us.”
During the meeting, a potential salary pool was established for faculty and staff for the upcoming academic year.
“We have been very fortunate over the course of the past decade to have repeated investments in faculty and staff salaries,” said Noland. “In fact, seven out of the past eight years, we provided salary enhancements to our faculty and staff.”
Governor Bill Lee’s original budget called for a 2.5% salary increase for faculty and staff. However, in Lee’s amended budget, the increase was dropped to 1.5%
Noland explained that in order to fund the 1.5% salary increase, student tuition and fees would need to be raised to cover ETSU’s portion of the cost. Since tuition is not being raised, the salary raises are being put into a reserve pool, and a recommendation will be brought by the Board of Trustees in January to see if and when those funds will be distributed.
Housing and meal plan reimbursements for students were also mentioned during the meeting.
“We’ve committed to students that we will provide refunds for housing as well as for meal plans, but they will be individualized refunds,” said Noland. “We’re not going to take the approach of ‘every student receives X.’”
King said they were working on calculating refunds for students.
“Our staff have been focused on running calculations for the over 2,000 students who are in our housing to try to determine how to thoughtfully and appropriately refund the cost to the students for housing that was not provided this semester, and this has been a step-by-step process,” said King.
Noland said returning students would have the option of receiving a credit for the next year instead of a refund if they choose.
“We’re also going to give a credit option,” said Noland. “So, if I was a freshman, and I was living in Luntsford, and I know I’m coming back for the fall, we could give that student the credit that they would apply toward the cost for next year. But we’re working through all that, and it’ll all be wrapped up by the end of April.”
