Speaking to a nearly empty room, Student Government Association President Ryan Hermance discussed tuition increases and new fees for the 2014 school year on Wednesday.
The meeting was similar to the one held on the 25th, with many of the same points being addressed.
Hermance began the meeting by explaining the state mandated 6 percent tuition increase on out of state students for 2014. “…it’s basically a tax on out of state students” he said, mentioning that the state takes all the money from the tuition increase, WCU gets none of it.
Hermance explained that WCU can only admit up to 18% of its total population from outside of North Carolina, so the number of students affected by the tuition increase would be relatively small-less than 2,000 students.
Among the changes in fees, the most discussed change was parking. Rather than increase the price of parking for all students, the university is looking to implement a tiered parking system, with prices ranging from $122 for bottom tier parking to $172 for top tiered parking. Hermance said the change is designed to help the school save money for a parking deck while still saving students money on parking passes “If you were to raise it were everybody pays a flat fee like they do now, each student would be paying $290.” With the money for a new parking garage, WCU aims to turn convert a significant portion of the current campus parking back into green space for pedestrian traffic.
