Miami University Tuition To Increase 1.4 Percent Next Year

BY SCOTT SUTTON
Miami University journalism student

Students entering Miami University next fall will pay 1.4 percent more in tuition, the Board of Trustees decided Friday.

Under Miami’s Tuition Promise plan, that means that Ohioans starting in Oxford next year are likely to pay a bit more than $15,000 in annual tuition and fees for each of their four years on campus while out-of-state students will pay $34,695 a year. The Tuition Promise program, launched in the fall of 2016, locks in tuition at the same rate for four years.

In another item on their packed agenda, Miami’s trustees also voted in favor of a new career fee of $100 per semester, to begin next year. The new dollars will support more immersive career counseling for students.

$106 million in new construction

Trustees also endorsed plans to ask the state of Ohio for millions more for campus construction.

Miami’s Capital Improvements Plan asks the state for just more than $106 million between 2019 and 2024. Of that, $30 million would cover a second phase of renovation of Pearson Hall, $38.4 million would go to renovate Bachelor Hall, and $34 million would improve Hiestand Hall. Plans also call for about $2.1 million for smaller projects on the Hamilton campus and another $1.6 million for Middletown projects.

In another key financial decision, trustees voted to establish a new $50 million Strategic Initiatives Fund, with dollars going to yet-to-be announced new academic programs.

Miami's Vice President for Finance and Business Services David Creamer said earlier that more details would be known about the fund next year.

According to the agenda, the Strategic Initiatives Fund would be established over a three-year period, with $9 million coming from the College of Arts and Science and $8 million from the provost's office.

Trustees also accepted reports that showed Miami:

• trimmed about $11.9 million in expenses in fiscal 2017, and "redeployed" $31.5 million from cost-savings efforts to student financial aid and other student benefits.
• spent about $1.2 million on remedial education on its regional campuses in fiscal year 2017. About 66 percent of regional students require remedial work, agenda documents show.

Trustees also learned that Miami’s Glee Club is working on going to Italy, with plans to sing for the Pope at the Vatican in May of 2019. In the meantime, Club President Alex Wortman said, the club is preparing for its winter term tour of the U.S. southeast, with stops in Asheville, North Carolina; Charleston and Hilton Head, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee; and Louisville, Kentucky.

“I am always amazed by our student body,” Student Body President Maggie Callaghan said in her remarks. “This is such an incredible opportunity for them and I know they will represent Miami so well.”

Miami professor Rodney Coates, coordinator of Black World Studies, told trustees about his new book, “The Matrix of Race: Social Construction, Intersectionality, and Inequality.” The book, co-authored with Abby Ferber and David Brunsma, aims to make race and racial inequality “visible” in new ways to students in race and ethnic relations courses, he said.

Administrators also outlined efforts to increase opportunities for students to succeed in gaining employment and graduate school acceptance. To improve graduation rates, they said, Miami has initiated intervention practices that cover academic advising, transitioning to college, developing financial literacy, considering early career steps and enhancing residential programming. Low first-term GPA and high financial need can limit persistence for some students, they reported.

Top photo: Miami's Board of Trustees will gather again Feb. 14-16, in meetings that are open to the public. -- Photo contributed by Miami News and Communications