MnSCU set to approve low tuition increase

SCSU sign
Saint Cloud State University sign
MPR photo/Tim Post

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities officials are set to approve the system's lowest annual tuition increase in ten years.

The MnSCU Board of Trustees is on course to approve a two percent tuition increase for two-year colleges and a three percent tuition increase for four-year universities.

The move comes just days after the end of the legislative session that imposes an $8 million budget reduction.

Vice Chancellor for Finance Laura King says the legislature's specific direction that all the cuts come from central administration is unprecedented.

"The board in the bill is prohibited from passing any of these reductions through to the colleges and universities in any way. We are directed to take all of the reduction out of system accounts and under the misguided notion, I think, that we would say that somehow what goes on here doesn't impact the campuses," said King.

Legislative language also warns the University of Minnesota away from additional tuition increases.

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