It’s not just tuition that will be offered to future Ohio University students at a constant, four-year flat rate.
Nearly all student fees, such as housing, meal plans and average course fees will remain the same cost over a period of four years for the Fall Semester's incoming freshman class in 2015.
These additional elements create more risk for the university, which has to consider all these variables when determining a flat rate despite their fluctuating year-to-year costs.
“Both sides have some risk in this,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for finance and administration. “It’s a shared risk, but the university is taking more risk than it historically would have taken.”
The guaranteed tuition implementation team will present these updated plan details for guaranteed tuition — now deemed the “OHIO Guarantee” — to the Board of Trustees at its Thursday meeting to pass onto the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents for approval.
“The goal of this program is to be as transparent as we can in prospective costs of getting your education at Ohio University,” said Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management.
Ohio Guarantee will keep the following costs the same rate over four years:
-Instruction fees
-General fees
-Out-of-state fees
-Individual course fees and other basic fees
Some course costs will be averaged into the plan, but courses with exceptional costs, such as aviation, will not be included in the program.
The cap on these costs will typically run out within four years, or 12 semesters, including summer, but OU will take into account certain exceptions that have historically prevented on-track graduation.
Those variables include:
-Programs that take more than 128 credit hours to complete
-Students called to military duty
-Students who have disabilities or medical conditions
-Students enrolled in the Ohio Program of Intensive English
-Students who spend time at an internship or co-op
-Students who become the victim of university errors
Students who don’t fall into these categories but want to retain their original tuition price will be able to appeal to the Ohio Guarantee Appeals Committee, but the process is still four years away, Cornell said.
Jacob Chaffin, a senior studying education and member of the Student Union, said he does not believe the Ohio Guarantee will have a positive effect on college affordability.
“They expanded a bad model, and the problems with it are that we don’t know how this is going to affect first generation college students who are now being told they should have planned better (for student debt),” said Chaffin, who participated in student protests against guaranteed tuition last spring.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
@DanielleRose84
