UVSC tuition to jump 8%

OREM — Tuition at Utah Valley State College is expected to rise at least 8 percent next year, the school's president said.

The Legislature is expected to vote to increase tuition by 3-4 percent, and school officials will likely add another 5-8 percent on top of that, UVSC President William Sederburg said Wednesday at a Truth in Tuition hearing.

"We think it's a fairly modest increase compared to what has been going on in the past and compared to our needs," Sederburg said, referring to the 5-8 percent part the Board of Trustees will address in coming weeks.

UVSC officials hope the Legislature will give the college enough money for operating costs and building maintenance so the school-imposed part of the tuition increase will go directly to student-related programs. Last year, the Legislature failed to cover all of the school's operating and maintenance costs.

Trustees hope to hire more career and academicadvisers, create an honors program, improve classroom technology, expand marketing and public relations and raise salaries of faculty and staff to 90 percent of career average so they won't quit for better pay elsewhere. Sederburg wants to add three more four-year degree programs and a library to support those programs.

A Utah resident attending UVSC full-time is currently paying $1,186 per semester for tuition. Ten percent of students attending UVSC are currently considered nonresidents — residency status can be obtained after a student accumulates 60 hours of academic credit — and are paying $4,151 per semester. The Legislature uses the extra tuition money for other state needs, Sederburg said.

"The (current) tuition rates are very low in comparison with national levels," Sederburg said.

The nationwide average for college tuition in 2003-04 was $4,169. The average for colleges in the West was $3,329, according to figures Sederburg presented at the hearing.

The average that same year in Utah was $2,450, according to the figures.

UVSC's tuition falls in the middle among Utah's public colleges.

It is higher than Snow College, the College of Eastern Utah, Dixie College and Salt Lake Community College — all two-year institutions.