Tuition, Room and Board Rise at Kent State

For the second consecutive year, it's going to cost more to attend in the fall than it did the previous year.

The university's board of trustees signed off on and nearly 4 percent increases in room and board rates Wednesday for the entire eight-campus system.

The trustees unanimously voted to increase tuition by the maximum allowed by the state in its biennium budget, which was approved last summer and included millions in dollars of cuts in financial support to Kent State.

The percentage increase for the 2012-2013 school year amounts to about $327 above the $9,346 cost for undergraduates during the 2011-2012 year. The hike puts the cost of tuition at Kent State for an undergraduate Ohio resident at about $9,672 per year — excluding room and board — starting in the fall.

Graduate students will pay $10,290 per year starting next year compared with $9,942 this year.

"This will still not make up for the cuts that Kent State experienced in state support," Kent State Trustee Steve Colecchi said.

Wednesday's increase in tuition follows a 3.5 percent increase approved last summer that took effect in the fall of 2011.

Referring to Wednesday's tuition vote, Kent State President Lester Lefton said "you can expect every other university in Ohio to act the same."

At Kent State's seven regional campuses, lower-division undergraduate students will pay $2,736 per semester in tuition starting in the fall compared with $2,644 previously. Upper-division undergraduates will pay $3,206 per semester. Those figures are based on a student taking 11 credit hours per semester.

In room and board rates, the trustees approved a 3.97 percent increase in the double-room rate and a 3.83 percent increase in the basic board rate, both of which resulted in a combined increase in the standard undergraduate room and board rate of 3.92 percent effective fall 2012.

Lefton said the rate increases keep tuition and board costs at Kent State about in the middle of Ohio's 14 public universities. He said the tuition hike is not directly related to a $170 million renovation plan the trustees also approved Wednesday.

"You can't really say one thing causes tuition to go up," Lefton said.