OU board gathered at retreat lodge may vote to raise tuition for third consecutive year

TULSA — Tuition at the University of Oklahoma could increase for the third consecutive year. The OU Board of Regents is expected to vote on a 3% tuition hike Wednesday for in-state and out-of-state students at the undergraduate and graduate level.

The regents will consider the proposal while at a retreat lodge outside of Tulsa in a meeting space that typically costs thousands of dollars a day to reserve.

Last year, the regents approved a 3% increase for out-of-state tuition and in 2021 a 2.75% hike for in-state and out-of-state students. Student costs could rise again at OU, even though state funding for Oklahoma's colleges and universities increased by 13.8% this year.

The latest increase would affect both resident and non-resident students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. OU officials proposed charging $5 more per credit hour for in-state undergraduates and $21.75 more per credit hour for non-resident undergraduates.

The proposal would raise tuition by 3% at the OU College of Law, charging $16.50 more per credit hour for Oklahoma residents and $30 more per hour for non-residents. Health Sciences Center students would pay 1-7% more, depending on the program.

Houston-area native Weslie Griffin, a rising senior at OU, had to take out extra loans to cover last year's tuition increase. He said fees for his professional pilot major went up, too.

Students complained in 2021 that they felt left out of the decision to raise the price of OU attendance. Griffin, a member of OU's Undergraduate Student Congress, said the experience this year was no different, despite promises from university leadership to engage students earlier in the process.

"It does feel like much of the same where we're not very included in those conversations," he said.

Another OU Student Congress representative, Hope Rhoads, said she first heard of the potential tuition increase the day before the regents' meeting. She noted the vote will take place during summer break, a time when "there aren’t many students on campus to say anything about it.”

"It’s heavily going to affect students at the school," said Rhoads, a sophomore psychology major. "I have friends who are paying out of their pocket and are working through college and are going to have to take out more loan money, incur more debt and work more hours to go to OU. That's really frightening.”

These votes traditionally take place in June, the last month of the fiscal year when the regents must approve an annual budget for the university. In Fiscal year 2024, that budget will dedicate $1.17 billion for OU's Norman campus and $882 million for the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

With each of the past two tuition boosts, university leaders described a fine line between college affordability and delivering an excellent education.

“The goal and the dream is that we have excellence and that any student, certainly any Oklahoma resident, that has the talent … the ability and the drive, but not the financial means, has the ability to attend," OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said at last year's vote.

Faculty salaries have been a point of emphasis. OU increased faculty pay by 3% last year, a measure Harroz called "incredibly important" and hoped would become a regular occurrence.

The 2024 fiscal year budget adds merit-based raises for faculty and staff, which will cost an extra $10 million at the Norman campus alone. Other anticipated costs include capital projects for housing, athletics and enrollment, as well as 3% inflationary increases to the price of contractual services, communications, supplies and materials.

OU Board of Regents to vote on tuition hike from Tulsa retreat lodge

The board of regents will mull the tuition hike and budget proposal at the POSTOAK Lodge & Retreat, an event space and overnight getaway in the rural outskirts of northwest Tulsa.

The meeting will take place in POSTOAK's Evergreen Room, the venue's largest indoor space that often charges a rate of $2,000 to $2,500 per day depending on the accommodations package, according to the venue. The regents are scheduled to meet there for two days, with an open meeting Wednesday and a closed-door executive session Thursday.

An OU spokesperson, April Sandefer, said The Oklahoman would have to file an open records request with the university to receive information on specific expenses.

The university would not explain why the regents rented space at a retreat lodge instead of meeting at the OU-Tulsa campus. Although an annual retreat is common for the regents, it doesn't often coincide with the board's public meetings, especially ones with the magnitude of a tuition increase. The board's last two votes on raising tuition took place in Oklahoma City at the Health Sciences Center library.

"Regents meetings are scheduled at various locations across the state throughout the year in order to accommodate leaders from the three universities governed by the OU Board of Regents: the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa; Rogers State University in Claremore; and Cameron University in Lawton," Sandefer said in a statement.

Griffin said it was "kind of crushing" to hear the regents would cast their votes from a costly event space.

"We’re the ones paying for that," Griffin said. "They're increasing the price (of tuition) as well as telling us we should be more frugal with our money, then to go rent out rooms like that in resorts and lodges."

Reporter Nuria Martinez-Keel covers K-12 and higher education throughout the state of Oklahoma. Have a story idea for Nuria? She can be reached at nmartinez-keel@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @NuriaMKeel. Support Nuria’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: University of Oklahoma could raise tuition for third consecutive year