Jobeth Malone
jamalone@valdosta.edu

This past week the chancellor announced that beginning in 2007 there will be a tuition guarantee for students. This means that for all regional and state universities in Georgia, freshmen who stay in school and on track, with all their requirements to move forward, will have their tuition locked in.

Locked in tuition means that if tuition is raised in later years, they still get to pay the same amount as when they first started out in college. Many schools across America are implementing this advantage for their students. “A lot of schools are doing this (locked in tuition) to make it easy for a family to budget the same amount of money each year, for their college students,” said Jim Black, vice president for Finance and Administration.

“Also, some students stay in school for five, six or sometimes even more years. This will make it easier for families to encourage students to stay with their program of study and finish on time.”

The locked in tuition applies to all students with the exception of graduate students and students in online programs. Also, this locked in tuition does not include mandatory fees or expenses for room and board. Even though tuition will be locked in, if fees are raised, then students will have to comply.

Although tuition is going to increase for next year, it won’t necessarily increase every year. There is an annual meeting each year to discuss fees and tuition increases. The Board of Regents, at this meeting, will either approve or disapprove a new tuition rate for the entering class. Whether tuition is raised is based on the general state of the economy as well as other issues. For 2007 Georgia is giving $1.93 billion to the university system, more money than ever before. Last year’s figure was $1.66 billion.

Even with the money being given to Georgia universities there will in fact be a 4 percent raise in tuition prices in 2007 for all regional and state universities, as well as a 5 percent increase for research universities, and a 3 percent increase for all twoyear colleges. Next year’s freshman will be the first students ever to be locked into this new rate. One big question many college students have is: Where exactly does the extra tuition money go to? The answer is that the larger VSU campus gets the more money it costs to run it.

“We use new money to support a planning process,” Black said. “For example, our increasing enrollment is putting a strain on core curriculum. VSU has to hire new faculty to teach.”

The nursing program alone is getting $120 million more then last year to improve the program. There are many other places in VSU that money is used for. VSU is trying to put together a student success center as well as improve the VSU culture all around.