OU regents vote to increase tuition, fees

<br>LAWTON, Okla. (AP) _ Tuition will increase by 17.5% and with fees, costs could go up as high as about 39% at the University of Oklahoma. <br><br>The OU Board of Regents approved a $1.19 billion budget

Wednesday, June 25th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) _ Tuition will increase by 17.5% and with fees, costs could go up as high as about 39% at the University of Oklahoma.

The OU Board of Regents approved a $1.19 billion budget for fiscal year 2004 during a monthly meeting Tuesday at Cameron University. The regents voted unanimously for a 17.5 percent tuition increase.

Resident freshmen students will pay $3,982.50 in tuition and fees for 30 credit hours, or 39.2 percent more than last year. Resident undergraduate students will pay $3,741 in fees and tuition for 30 hours, an increase of about 27.7 percent.

Nonresident freshmen will pay $10,111.50 in tuition and fees for 30 hours, a 31.2 percent increase, while other nonresident undergraduates will pay $10,254 in tuition and fees for 30 hours, a 27 percent increase.

On the graduate level, resident students will pay $3,727 in tuition and fees for 24 hours (25 percent more). A new resident graduate student will pay $3,985 in tuition and fees for 24 hours, a hike of 33.7 percent.

New nonresident students will pay $10,523.80 in tuition and fees for 24 hours (26 percent increase), while other nonresident graduate students face a $10,781.80 increase on tuition and fees for 24 hours (29 percent increase).

The OU Health Sciences Center will receive $658.4 million of the $1.19 billion budget, while $538 million will go to the Norman campus.

``State revenues have taken a downfall of $500 million below previous estimates and the university has experienced $25 million in cuts,'' OU President David L. Boren said. ``It is a lean budget that is balanced, barely.''

``Without going above a seven percent increase, we would had to have laid off a significant amount of staff,'' Boren said.

``Through talking with students we found that fees can be misleading, so we have combined fees and put them in layman's language.''

OU expects its increases to produce $11 million to $12 million.

Last week, Oklahoma State University regents approved tuition and fee increases of 29 percent for freshmen and 24 percent for returning students.

OSU hopes its increases will generate about $9 million.

The regents also approved a $40,316,000 contract to Oscar J. Boldt Construction of Oklahoma City for construction of the National Weather Center.

The university received final construction bids June 3 for the weather center, which the regents approved in 1998.

The current project budget is $67 million.

Ground breaking is set for Aug. 1 and the project should take three years, said Nick Hathaway, executive office president.