The Board of Regents unanimously passed proposals Monday to increase tuition rates, issue bonds to raise money for new construction and approve the appointment of Paula Short as provost.
The Board of Regents voted Monday to increase tuition beginning in the fall. Part of the estimated $10 million raised will go towards improving the M.D. Anderson Library. | Nam-My Le/The Daily Cougar
Tuition will increase by $13 per undergraduate semester hour beginning this August, and will generate $10 million to be used to lower student to adviser ratio, student to faculty ratio, increasing need-based financial aid and improving the M. D. Anderson Library.
“I see it as a significant investment in areas where we have significant problems,” said Student Government Association President Cedric Bandoh, who is a member of the Tuition and Fee committee.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Planning and Analysis Chris Stanich presented the plan to the Board, citing that UH is ranked No. 7 in the nation for graduating students with the least amount of debt and is still more affordable than Texas peer institutions and national peer institutions.
“Even with the proposed increases, we would still be below [in cost to] University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, and University of Texas at Dallas,” Stanich said.
The presentation also cited that UH did not increase tuition last year, and will begin to offer a 4-year fixed tuition program in 2014.
“The expectation is that students who participate in the fixed tuition program will, over the course of four years, pay less than those students who go through the tradition tuition and fees route,” Stanich said.
The Regents’ approval to issue new bonds will raise also money that will go toward the construction of the football stadium and arena, the Health and Biomedical Sciences 2 building and the Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering building.
The bonds will additionally fund projects on the UH-Downtown and UH-Victoria campuses and tuition rates will also increase for UHD, UHV, and UH-Clear Lake.
Short’s appointment as provost by Chancellor and President Renu Khator on June 4 after serving as interim provost during the past semester was likewise unanimously passed Monday.
“We had some really good candidates and any of them could be very good provosts on their merit, but the campus started to rally behind Paula,” Khator said. “So I had to call her again and ask her again if she would mind coming aboard and I didn’t even give her a chance to say no.”
Short joined UH in 2012 as a distinguished professor in the College of Education and director of the Institute for Policy, Research, and Evaluation. She will begin serving as provost immediately.
“I can assure you that you have my total dedication to be diligent and to making our academic enterprise the best in the country, maybe the best in the world,” Short said.
