(Photo Courtesy of The PaperClip) “Cartoon of money bad with ‘college tuition’ written on the front.”
Qinglong Diep Connector Staff
UMass Lowell students will see another increase in tuition and fees for the second consecutive year, as voted by the UMass Board of Trustees during their meeting last week with student trustee Adam Lechowicz, UMass Amherst student, who voted against increasing tuition and fees.
According to the vote document posted on the University of Massachusetts President website, tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students and out-of-state undergraduate students will go up by 2.5%, which is an increase of $380 and $846 respectively. In-state graduate students and out-of-state graduate students tuition and fees will also go up by 2.5%, which is an increase of $374 and $676 respectively.
Looking at the breakdown per semester for tuition and fees, in-state undergraduate students will be paying $194 more per semester while out-of-state undergraduate students will be paying $423 more per semester. In-state graduate students will be paying $187 more per semester while out-of-state graduate students will be paying $338 more per semester.
At a UMass Board of Trustees Committee on Administration and Finance, that met on April 5, 2023, President Martin Meehan said to the board that tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates students are well below inflation.
Housing and meal plans will also increase for next year. Students wishing to dorm in Concordia Hall, Leitch Hall, Bourgeois Hall or the Inn and Conference Center will see an increase of $220 for the year. Donahue Hall and Sheehy Hall rooms will increase by $230 for the year. University Suites and Riverview East Suites will increase by $310 for the year. Living in Riverview Suites West or River Hawk Village Studio and Standard will increase by $450 for the year. River Hawk Village Deluxe and River Hawk Village Townhouse will increase by $460 for the year.
The Unlimited 400 meal plan will increase by $170 for the year, which is an increase of $85 per semester. The Unlimited 200 meal plan will increase by $160 for the year, which is an increase of $80 per semester. Lastly, the Apartment Meal Plan will increase by $130 for the year, which is an increase of $65 per semester. According to Dr. James Kohl, Dean of Student Affairs and Experiential Learning, that meal plan, “equates to about a 3% increase, which is fairly typical when you’re looking at the costs of running an operation, the dining operation from year to year.”
Dr. Kohln also said, “Interestingly, the consumer price index has actually gone up by about 8%. We’re always very sensitive to wanting to make sure that we’re, closely managing costs, because we know how you know costs are so important to our students and so we [want to] keep those as low as possible. By only going up the 3%, we’re able to cover some of the increase in costs but we’re actually not covering the total. So we’re working to manage that. We also really are, you know, want to keep our prices, you know, in an affordable range.”
Parking Rates for the 2023-2024 academic year will not go up according to an employee that works at UCard, Access and Parking Services (UCAPS) and will remain at $450 for students.
