Forum set to hear comments on tuition recommendations

The University of Oregon community is invited to weigh in on proposed tuition and fee rates for the upcoming academic year at a public meeting this week.

Interim President Patrick Phillips will hold a President’s Forum on Tuition on Feb. 16 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Erb Memorial Union Crater Lake Rooms. Written public comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23. Comments can be submitted using an online form.

The president will take into consideration the comments as well as the UO’s Tuition and Fee Advisory Board recommendations before presenting his recommendations to the University of Oregon Board of Trustees in March.

The advisory board — made up of students, staff and faculty members — sent a memo outlining its final recommendations to Phillips on Feb. 14, after holding 10 public meetings and one public forum, co-hosted with the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, during fall and winter term.

The advisory board is recommending a 4 percent increase in tuition rates for Oregon residents and a 3.8 percent increase for nonresident students. The increases only apply to incoming undergraduate students.

If approved by Phillips and the UO Board of Trustees, the tuition and mandatory fees would then be locked for the incoming class of undergraduate students for the next five years.

The Oregon Guarantee, adopted in March 2020, means each incoming class of first-year and transfer students pay the same tuition rate and fees for the next five years. Tuition rates and mandatory fees for all other undergraduate students are already set.

Most undergraduate students are part of the guaranteed tuition program and will see no increase in their tuition rates or administratively controlled mandatory fees. Undergraduates who started at the UO prior to summer 2020 have locked tuition increases of 3 percent per year through next year, as part of the phase-in of the guaranteed tuition program.

The Tuition and Fee Advisory Board reviewed proposed tuition rate increases for graduate programs, which are not part of the Oregon Guarantee. The recommendations range from no increase to 5 percent, depending on the program.

The board of trustees is scheduled to vote on the president’s recommendations at the next board meeting, March 13-14.