ASHLAND, Ore. — According to the Associated Press, Southern Oregon University is raising its tuition by 9.9 percent, which is the biggest public university tuition increase in the state.
All seven of Oregon’s public universities will raise tuition for the 2019-2020 school year which they say is due to a lack of state funding.
Western Oregon University has the lowest increase of 2.33 percent.
According to numbers from collegestats.org, the school has about the same number of students as SOU.
One SOU student tells us he can see both the negative and positive impacts of the increase.
“I believe it’s something that maybe could be good for us and could help us with buying for books, buying for computers, and everything else that could help a student succeed here at Southern Oregon.” Devvon Gage, SOU student, said. “For incoming freshman, I do see it kind of factoring and maybe limiting kids coming to the school and having the ability to pay for it.”
Despite legislators recommending an increase on the budget, many university administrations say they’re working at a deficit because higher education didn’t get a piece of the two billion dollar school funding bill.
According to Oregon Live, the higher education coordinating commission met last week and approved SOU’s nearly 10-percent increase, but the numbers could still change if the state decides on a different budget.
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