If students and faculty were closely monitoring their Ohio University email Friday afternoon, instead of preparing for finals, they might have noticed OU's president has recommended another tuition increase.
This one, the sixth consecutive increase, would be 1.5 percent and will be voted on at the June OU Board of Trustees meeting. The fact the Board has approved an increase six times in a row, since the 2009-10 academic year, shows how often the body disagrees with OU's administration on the subject.
Next year's tuition would increase $156 to approximately $10,535.
But buried at the end of the long email, there was a nugget of news to keep track of.
"I have directed (Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit) and (Vice President for Finance and Adminstration Stephen Golding) to identify a means of financial support for current students with the highest financial need to lessen the burden of a tuition and fee increase on them and their families," McDavis wrote in his campus-wide email announcing the recommendation. "I plan to include a recommendation to support these students in my budget proposal to the Board."
There's no details on what that means, at least not until the June Board meeting, said Jennifer Kirksey, McDavis' chief of staff, in an email.
"(This) refers to new support that will focus only on current students with the highest need," Kirksey said. "This support is in development and there are no new additional details to offer at this time."
OU overhauled its scholarship program this year. It dropped its popular Gateway scholarship program and introduced the "OHIO Signature Awards, which includes generous merit-based scholarships as well as supportive need-based grants for members of the incoming (2015-16) freshman class," McDavis wrote in his email.
It seems the "financial support for current students" McDavis alludes to in his email to "lessen the burden of a tuition and fee increase" would be in addition to that.
OU announced last year that it's looking to build a $75 million endowment to balloon it's scholarship options for students; $50 million from donors and $25 million from the university.
Stay tuned to see what financial support might be coming for current students.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
@WillDrabold
