The IU Board of Trustees voted eight to one in favor of a 1% increase in tuition and fees for the 2022 fiscal year. This is an increase of $112 in tuition per year for undergraduate students in Bloomington. The increase will take effect in the fall 2021 semester.
Tuition rates for out-of-state students increased at a higher rate of 2% each year over the next two years. This would mean an increase of around $1500.
For graduate students, rates will increase by 1.5% each year over the next two years or around $300 total for in-state students.
Out-of-state graduate students will see a 2.5% increase each year for the next 2 years for a total of around $1600 total.
“We must ensure that an IU education is not only excellent but also affordable to every citizen in the state,” IU President Michael McRobbie said.
The cost of personal protective equipment, contact tracing and mitigation testing combined with loss of income from athletics and refunds for housing, amounted to a loss of over $200 million, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John Sejdinaj said.
The main reason for the increase in tuition was to offset losses suffered from the university due to the pandemic, Sejdinaj said. With the increase, IU still has a more competitive price than most of the other schools in the Big Ten Conference, according to data from Sejdinaj.
Compared with other schools in Indiana and in the Big Ten Conference, IU’s tuition is very competitive, Sejdinaj said.
Despite increases in tuition, total student debt has decreased by 37% for in-state students since the 2011-2012 school year, Sejdinaj said.
During the meeting, four graduate students asked why a raise in tuition was being proposed without considering their pay.
“In order to preserve the university and open up in the midst of a pandemic, the costs of doing that were substantial,” Chair of the IU Board of Trustees Michael Miro said.
The board plans to increase the minimum wage for IU employees to $15 an hour. However, this only applies to full time employees, Sejdinaj said.
“The conundrum is that basically the only way to raise revenue is to raise tuition since the government is increasingly less involved in our income,” Vice Chair of the IU Board of Trustees Patrick Shoulders said.
