FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The UA System Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to raise tuition and fees for campuses during their regularly scheduled meeting.
The chancellors of each school requested an approval of tuition and fees for the 2024-25 school year. Every campus besides the University of Arkansas - Grantham, which is an online institution, will see an increase.
"Even though we talk about increase, the fundamental fact of attending college, at the two year or four years, is a costly endeavor," said Chancellor Charles Robinson for the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville at the meeting on May 22.
One reason the board decided to raise rates was due to the rate of inflation.
"We need more as institutions to be able to keep up with what Dr. Powell has clearly explained just the rate of inflation," Robinson said.
For four-year institutes, University of Arkansas - Fort Smith will see the largest increase in rates at 6.22%. University of Arkansas - Little Rock will see the lowest rate increase at 2.88%. The University of Arkansas - Fayetteville is right after UALR at 3.66%.
Even though almost every campus is raising rates, Trustee Kelly Eichler questioned why the "most desirous" campus, in reference to the Fayetteville campus, is seeing one of the lowest increases in tuition.
"It just seems from a business perspective that that campus could buoy all the others if we could raise tuition to where it ought to be," Eichler said.
Robinson said he strives for the "ability to afford" for all Arkansans no matter their background.
"That will help these students be more successful in getting the credentials that they've signed up for, and ultimately going off and being productive citizens and giving back to the state and growing the economic viability of the state of Arkansas," Robinson said. "If you need to grow, you're going to try to grow as deliberately but as also as carefully as possible in what you charge as not to shocked students and their families and make it harder for them to succeed."
Students in the UA System say that they understand the need for an increase, even though many aren't necessarily happy about it.
Hunter Fountain is an incoming senior at the University of Arkansas and a Fayetteville native.
"I just love it here," Fountain said. "It just felt like home. I just feel it was the next logical step for me to come over here."
He said the in-state tuition rate was partly what brought him to campus, but he understands the need for an increase.
"Not everyone is usually happy about that," Fountain said. "I know just more people attending college in general, and then there needs to be more resources toward that."
He said he hopes some of the extra money could go toward needed things on campus.
"We need more housing on campus, or just better, better transportation," Fountain said. "As long as I'm getting something out of it, and they have some really good reasoning behind it, right?"
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