David Jesse

Detroit Free Press

It will cost 3.9% — or about $546 — more to attend the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor next year for in-state students, after the Board of Regents approved the increase Thursday afternoon.

Out-of-state students would see a 4.4% increase. The cap set by the state Legislature for universities to get all the possible state aid is 4.2%.

But the tuition increase didn’t sail through the board smoothly. Three Regents — Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew Richner and Denise Ilitch — all spoke passionately about their lack of support for the budget and the increase. Those three cast no votes. The other five Regents voted yes.

“Are we raising tuition because we can, rather than because we need to?” Newman said. She said she didn’t like making cuts in one area and raising costs in another area.

Ilitch called for a task force to be formed to look at ways to cover increasing costs without raising tuition.

Administrators said they are doing the best they can to keep the university affordable.

“We try to be the best stewards of our money as possible,” U-M Provost Martha Pollack said in presenting next year’s budget. She also said the average net cost for in-state students has not increased for the past seven years.

“Many students will effectively see no increase in tuition,” Pollack said.

The regents also approved tuition hikes for U-M Dearborn and U-M Flint of 4.1% for both.

Oakland University raised tuition 3.95% earlier this month. On Wednesday, Michigan State University raised tuition as well.

In-state freshmen and sophomores at MSU will pay 3.7% more for tuition this fall compared with last year, or about $250 per semester assuming a student takes 15 credits.

Juniors and seniors from Michigan State face a 3.9% increase, or about $264 per 15-credit semester.

Eastern Michigan University will set tuition on Tuesday and Wayne State University at the end of the month.

In the state budget approved last week by the Legislature, colleges and universities would receive an extra $39.8 million in 2017.

U-M student body president David Schafer ripped the board for not getting any student input on the tuition increases.

"This is our education. This is our future,” he said in his monthly report to the board, noting the students are the ones who have to get extra jobs to cover additional costs.

Schafer, who said he is an out-of-state student with a recently unemployed father, said the increases hurt lower-income students, some of whom may decide not to come back to school.



Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @reporterdavidj