The University of Wyoming board of trustees has increased tuition by 4 percent again this year. In 2014, the board passed a policy to increase tuition every year unless they voted not to. This year the administration and the student government recommended against charging students more.
Student government president Ben Wetzel is a non-voting member of the UW board of trustees. He said students were hoping the board would hold off on a tuition increase given there was also an increase in program fees.
“With the implementation of program fees . . . particularly in some of our more heavy science and math-based fields,” Wetzel said, “then looking at 4 percent tuition increase; it was in our opinion just a little too much for one year.”
He said it also didn’t make sense to increase tuition when the university is looking at decreasing what it charges non-resident students, as a way of attracting more students from out of state and bolstering enrollment.
“We thought it was an interesting place to put some of our recruiters and our admissions folks in,” said Wetzel. “Where we are going to increase tuition one year and then immediately in the next four months start having conversations about lowering tuition by thousands of dollars.”
Wetzel said there are students who could see a $3,000 jump in total cost. But he added the fee increases will benefit students. Wetzel said the university has plans to hire 30 more advisors.