On October 25, a heated hearing was held over the proposed tuition increase at Texas Woman’s University, led by Jason Tomlinson, the vice president for finance & administration, and Dr. Angela Bauer, the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Students and faculty were encouraged to attend the meeting held in ACT 301, as well as over Zoom. The meeting provided an open space to ask questions, give feedback and gain insight into the proposed increase.
“Everyone has acknowledged that certain things need to be addressed, which requires money, and of course that’s why we are here with this request for a tuition increase, to provide a clearer understanding on the needs that exist on our campus and why it is that we are asking for this increase,” said Bauer.
The designated tuition increase request per school credit hours would rise from $188 to $197 for both graduate and undergraduate students. This equates to a $9 difference, which is a 2.79% and 3.78% increase, respectively. However, students who qualify for zero tuition guarantee will still be granted the aid.
“If you look over the last two years with inflation, the increase should be 9%,” said Tomlinson. “We’re not asking students to cover that, we will try to cover that in multiple places. We are just asking for help to cover a part of it because we don’t want the burden to fall into one place.”
There would also be a jump in course costs, called a differential tuition increase, that would be in addition to the designated increase. Essentially, students will begin to pay an additional tuition surcharge per credit-hour for specific classes, along with the $9 increase per credit hour. This request would apply only to relevant courses, with each course receiving a differing increase. These courses include: College of Business and HCA, Nutrition & Food Sciences (NFS), Early Childhood Education (ECE), Education/Bilingual (EDBE), Education/Special (EDSP), Reading (READ), Counseling (COUN), Theatre (THEA), Visual Arts (ART), Music (MU) and Dance (DNCE).
“The higher tuition in general will be going into the big pot to pay all of the expenses,” said Tomlinson. “You could say it’s a helping offset for utility increases or increases in our insurance or any kind of government growth we’ve done. So, any kind of rise in tuition is going to help pay for those expenses and the operation of the university.”
Freshman Lanika Reyna decided to attend the hearing after receiving a campus wide email informing the student and faculty body of the proposed increase. Reyna does not have financial support from her parents and instead relies on scholarships and loans to attend TWU. For her, the idea of rising tuition was frightening and she wanted to learn what the reasoning and discussion behind the request was.
“If I have to take out another loan, because I only wanted to use loans for this year and didn’t want to move forward using them in college, I probably will transfer,” said Reyna. “I really don’t want student loan debt.”
Tomlinson and Bauer hope that students will not have to leave TWU and are working to ensure that students will be able to stay at the university regardless of the increase.
“I hope that what we’ve done on the other side, increasing scholarships and providing more financial aid, will help make up for [the increase],” said Tomlinson. “We’ve been trying to increase the opportunities to pursue work on campus as well and I hope we continue to add things to mitigate [students struggling] as much as we can.”
Junior Danika Murphy attended the hearing with Reyna, sharing the same worries over how the tuition increase will affect her financially and the possibility of having to pay out of pocket for the coming year.
“I hope that they will find a way to keep the increase as minimal as possible,” said Murphy. “As well as keeping their students in mind and all of the financial factors that students deal with in their personal lives.”
The request for a differential tuition increase will be presented to the board of regents on November 7 and 8. If the request is approved by the board, the implementation of an increase will occur in the Fall of 2025. To view the full presentation given by Tomlinson and Bauer, access this link for more specific information.
Bella Castillo can be reached via email at icastillo4@twu.edu
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