PSU Board Approves a 11 Percent Tuition Hike

Students packed into Monday's PSU Board of Trustees meeting, where an 11 percent tuition increase passed 6-3. COURTESY PSU STUDENT UNION

Sponsored October is Dine the Couve - 3 for $25 menus Experience the bounty of northwest flavor with special menus at Clark County restaurants all month.

Portland State University's (PSU) Board of Trustees voted 6-3 on Monday afternoon to raise annual student tuition and fees from $9,105 to $10,050—an 11 percent hike.

Board members voting in favor of the increase said it was necessary in order to balance the university’s 2019-2020 budget, which currently includes an $18.6 million hole. That gap—and the tuition hike meant to fill it—could be reduced if Salem lawmakers provide more funding for higher education this legislative session, as PSU leaders are calling for them to do. The legislature’s current proposed budget provides only $1.3 million in new funding for PSU.

“Approving this budget sends a message to the [legislative budget] co-chairs and the governor,” said board member Christine Vernier, who voted in favor of the hike, according to a PSU press release.

The issue of state education funding has been dominating headlines over the last week, but the focus has been on K-12 funding. After teachers organized a massive walkout last Wednesday, the state senate managed to pass a major new funding source for K-12 funding on Monday. But unless the Oregon Legislature and Governor Kate Brown allocate more funding for higher education in the state’s biannual budget, all seven of Oregon’s public universities will be forced to raise tuition.

All Oregon public university tuition hikes above five percent need approval from the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), which will meet on June 13 to decide PSU’s fate. Students from PSU’s student union attended Monday's board meeting to protest the increase, and plan to do the same at the HECC meeting.

PSU officials say that if lawmakers provide more funding for public universities, the tuition hike could drop to as low as 4.9 percent, just below the HECC mandatory approval threshold.

Many PSU students are feeling financial pressure, even before the new tuition hike goes into effect. Three university departments have already established student hardship funds to help cover the cost of tuition and other necessities, and more students will likely lean on those funds should this increase be approved.

“Honestly, if I didn’t have that fund, I probably wouldn’t be going to school or would be stressed out every day trying to figure out what I was going to do next,” one student who uses the fund said in a PSU media release.

The PSU board vote comes just days after former President Rahmat Shoureshi announced his resignation. He has been replaced by Stephen Percy, who will serve as acting president. The university president is not a voting member of the board of trustees.