It’s official – tuition and fees are going up at Western Carolina University and other NC public universities as the UNC Board of Governors approved tuition and fee increases Friday, Feb. 27.
The tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates increases will be at an average of 4.3 percent, making the average cost be $6,448.88 per year. The average tuition and fees for out-of-state undergraduates will increase at an average of 2.9 percent, making the average cost $20,397.72 per year.
The UNC Board of Governors met at UNC-Charlotte.
Photo courtesy of Dave DeWitt
Board member Roger Aiken voted against the increases and said “The people I work with and the people who are my friends who are putting their children through college right now, and the amount of debt they’re coming out with, it’s just not sustainable.”
Here at WCU, the tuition will increase by 3 percent over the next two years.
That means that, for an in-state undergraduate the tuition will be growing to $3,779 in 2015-2016, then to $3,893 in 2016-17. For out-of-state undergraduates at WCU, tuition will move up to $14,172, and then to $14,286 in 2016-17.
Student fees will also be increasing at WCU as well, starting next year.Existing mandatory fees will increase by 8.11 percent making the cost $232 per year for undergraduates. The athletics fees will increase by 6.10 percent, costing $42 per year. The undergraduate book rental fee will increase 23.89 percent, costing $54 per year.
Jacob Jandacek, an out-of-state transfer WCU student disagrees with the increases, saying, “The cost of tuition is exorbitantly high and I feel we’re being taken advantage of. Look at universities all around the world. Even private institutions in other countries are affordable. In most cases, public universities are almost free. I understand that many countries have ties between universities and government, but I don’t think the United States’ university industry, so to speak, has any right to rape our generation by causing crippling, overwhelming debt that will follow a vast majority of us well into our adult lives. In a nutshell, I don’t believe at all that tuition increase is necessary.”
The UNC Board of Governers also approved a new $30 fee for security costs, as well as closing three university-based centers – The Center on Work, Poverty and Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill; East Carolina University’s Center for Biodiversity; and North Carolina Central University’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change.
