Eastern Michigan University will raise tuition by 7.8%, one of the biggest recent hikes by a public university in the state.
The school is exceeding a state-imposed 3.2% cap on tuition hikes, which means the school is giving up a $1 million incentive payment it would have received if it had stayed below the cap.
In-state students will now pay $10,417 in tuition and fees.
EMU says it's spending a lot of money on building improvements and repairs, hiring new faculty, and creating new academic programs for health-care workers, like a physician assistant program.
"We wrangle every year,” says outgoing EMU President Susan Martin. “We never have enough money for everything. And this meeting culminates a long fight about priorities. So if we didn't increase that much, we would have had to reduce those expenses somewhere."
Meanwhile, Martin says EMU has doubled its financial aid over the last eight years, offering $48.5 million in aid for the coming school year.
“We have a commitment to that, and so the net price that students will pay I think is still an incredibly affordable education."
Martin says Eastern will still be one of Michigan's less expensive public schools, coming in as the 13th least expensive out of 15 public state schools.
