THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120567
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Old Dominion University's tuition and fees will go up just $30 next year - or less than 1 percent - for undergraduates from Virginia, the lowest increase in recent memory, administrators announced Thursday.
The annual total, which excludes room and board, will rise from $4,086 to $4,116, or less than 0.8 percent. Tuition will be held steady, but the student activities fee will go up $30.
Room and board costs will increase by 2 percent. The total package, for a Virginia undergraduate living on campus, will go up 1.4 percent, from $8,762 to $8,886.
For out-of-state undergraduates, the total for tuition and fees will also go up $30, from $10,446 to $10,476, or less than 0.3 percent. ODU's Board of Visitors approved the increases Thursday.
``This is certainly lower than anything that's occurred while I've been here,'' said President James V. Koch, who came to ODU in 1990. ``It's the lowest in anybody's memory. And it may turn out to be the lowest of the four-year institutions in Virginia'' this year.
In the early '90s, Virginia colleges routinely approved tuition-and-fee increases above 10 percent to make up for state budget cuts. That has catapulted Virginia to among the eight states with most expensive college costs. ODU's increases for in-state undergraduates reached 12.4 percent in 1991 and 23.5 percent in 1992, state figures show.
To rein in the charges, the General Assembly last month approved - with Gov. George F. Allen's support - a two-year freeze on tuition for in-state undergraduates.
But legislators offered an escape hatch for colleges by exempting fees, such as health and activity charges, from the freeze. Colleges also will not be restricted in setting tuition for out-of-state students and graduate students.
ODU elected not to bump up the increase, beyond $30 a year, for graduate or out-of-state students. ``We want to be as price-sensitive as possible,'' Koch said. ``Even though we had the freedom to approve larger increases, we didn't.''
Old Dominion is the first state-supported university in the region to set its rates for the 1996-97 year. In comparison, Virginia Tech increased tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates 1.1 percent; James Madison University increased its tuition and fees by 2.2 percent.
At ODU's Webb Center, students reacted favorably. ``It sounds reasonable to me,'' said Ragga Don, a senior from Norfolk. ``I remember one time it went up by, like, 15 percent. A lot of my friends had to leave school because they couldn't afford it. This year, it's fair, compared to that.''
Glenda Goehring, a junior from Norfolk, agreed: ``For the education we're getting, I don't think it's unreasonable. It's not that much of an increase that it would hurt somebody.''
The $30-a-year increase in tuition and fees will raise about half a million dollars for ODU's proposed 10,000-seat convocation center. The General Assembly last month authorized the $40 million center, as long as ODU does not use state funds to support it. Koch has said it would not be completed before 2000.
The College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia are expected to set their tuition rates today, Christopher Newport next week, and Norfolk State University next month. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
VP
ODU TUITION AND FEES
SOURCE: Old Dominion University
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB