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UVM President Proposes Tuition Freeze

UVM President Suresh Garimella announces plan to freeze 2020 tuition
Bear Cieri
/
University of Vermont
UVM President Suresh Garimella announces plan to freeze 2020 tuition

The University of Vermont’s new president announced Thursday that he will present a plan to the Board of Trustees to freeze tuition rates for the 2020 academic year.
Undergraduate in-state students at the University of Vermont currently pay approximately $16,000 and out-of-state about $41,000 annually in tuition.  If the Board of Trustees agrees with a plan President Suresh Garimella announced Thursday, rates will not change next year.  “Student loan debt is the second highest category of consumer debt. It’s critical that we do everything we can to address the pressures that families and individuals face in the pursuit of a college degree. This is why I will present to the Board of Trustees a zero tuition increase for next year.  That means no increase for undergraduate students and no increase for graduate students, no increase for in-state students and no increase for out-of-state students. This is a historic initiative. Other than a single time over 40 years ago UVM has not frozen tuition in recent history.”

Garimella noted that the college in Burlington has held tuition increases to about 3 percent annually. The school has about 10,700 undergraduates and roughly 1,600 graduate students. It has also provided about $160 million in tuition assistance that allows about 44 percent of Vermont students to attend tuition free. But he says yearly tuition increases are not sustainable and his proposal aligns with his priorities.   “Our most sacred obligation is to insure the success of our students and that starts with access and affordability.”

President Garimella says to compensate for the loss of $7 to $8 million in tuition revenue, the college will focus on ways it can generate additional revenue including improving student retention; growth in graduate, non-degree, online and summer enrollments; enhancing grant support and private partnerships and seeking broader philanthropic support.  “We did not build our model on the backs of our employees. There are not layoffs in this plan. Fees won’t go up to pay for this. I’m announcing a tuition freeze. We’re not announcing rates for room and board and things which will be announced separately.”

Environmental Studies and Political Science senior and Student Government Association President Jillian Scannell applauds the tuition freeze.  “Out-of-state tuition is 40,000. That’s a lot of money. I know every year for myself you know every year when I go to pay my bill it’s a struggle and we try to figure out how to do it. So even just one year I think can help a lot of people.”

UVM Chief Information Officer Simeon Ananou says university leadership must take action to help students obtain the best education and lowering costs is a key factor.  "Student debt is truly a problem not just for UVM but it’s a national crisis. We cannot wait any longer. So I see this as the beginning of a new era for UVM.”

Vermont Republican Governor Phil Scott, who is on the UVM Board of Trustees, issued a statement noting he was pleased that the college would not raise 2020 tuition rates and that “having the nation’s best cradle-to-career education system will be the very best economic development tool we could have here in Vermont…. However, the affordability of what we currently have, and where we’d like to go, is a huge challenge and balancing act for Vermonters. I believe President Garimella understands this dynamic…”

A tuition freeze must be approved by the UVM Board of Trustees which will formally set tuition rates in the spring.