Southeast Missouri State University undergraduates won’t pay more in tuition and general fees for classes next academic year.

The Board of Regents voted unanimously Friday to hold the line on costs for undergraduate students at $233 per credit hour for in-state students and $412.50 per credit hour for out-of-state students.

With no increase in the coming year, students graduating in May 2017 will have seen a total tuition and fee increase of 3.5 percent during their four-year college career, said Kathy Mangels, vice president for finance and administration. She said that increase ranks among the lowest in the nation,

A Southeast undergraduate who is a Missouri resident will pay $3,495 for classes totaling 15 credit hours this fall. The amount is less than what will be charged students attending the University of Missouri campuses and Lincoln, Missouri State, Central Missouri State and Northwest Missouri State universities. officials said.

Graduate students will see a slight increase: $2 more per credit hour for resident undergraduates and $3.50 more per credit for nonresident graduate students. Resident graduate students will pay $296.50 per credit hour, and nonresident graduate students will pay $524 per credit hour this fall.

General fees include fees for cultural arts, maintenance and repair, Student Recreation Center and intramurals, aquatic center, student activity, student health, athletics, special events and computing.

The university administration recommended freezing tuition and general fees for undergraduates as part of an agreement with the state legislature and Gov. Jay Nixon.

In exchange, public colleges such as Southeast were promised increased state funding.

Nixon signed a budget bill last month that provides a 4 percent increase in appropriations for public colleges and universities for fiscal 2017.

Schools such as Southeast, which experienced enrollment growth, received even more state funding.

Mangels said the university will receive nearly $2 million more in state funding for the coming fiscal year.

Jay Knudtson, president of the Board of Regents, said after the meeting Southeast must continue to be affordable for students while offering a high-quality education.

Knudtson said he has confidence in the school’s budget process, which involves a 30-member budget review committee of administrators, students and staff.

The agreement to hold the line on student fees does not apply to Southeast’s regional campuses, where tuition and general fees for lower-division courses will increase by $10 a credit hour, bringing the cost to $160 per credit hour, Mangels said.

The increased fees for students at the three outlying campuses in Sikeston, Kennett and Malden will help fund deferred maintenance needs at those campuses, she told the regents.

Even with the increase, the fee on lower-division courses will be less than community college rates in the area, Mangels said.

After the regents meeting, student Peyton Mogley said she was pleasantly surprised tuition and general fees for undergraduate students on the main campus won’t increase for the coming school year.

Mogley, who recently was elected by students to serve as Student Government president for the 2016-2017 academic year, said she was “shocked” and “elated” by the tuition freeze.

She said students routinely assume fees will climb every year.

Mogley said it “means a lot” to students the university is holding the line on tuition and fees.

In other business, school officials announced Southeast’s Department of Theatre & Dance has been renamed. It now will be called The Conservatory of Theatre & Dance.

School officials said the name change will provide a recruiting advantage in attracting talented theatrical and dance students.

Regent Phillip Britt of Kennett praised the move.

“I am extremely excited about this opportunity,” he said.

Britt said “from a recruiting standpoint, it is just a huge difference.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

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