Michigan Tech Board of Trustees Approves Budget, Tuition Rates

At its regular meeting in Houghton today, Michigan Technological University’s Board of Trustees passed a balanced budget for fiscal year 2014 of $172.5 million. Major sources of revenue include $43.8 in state appropriations and $114.7 million in tuition and fees.

Next year’s budget is $7 million higher than the current year’s and includes an additional $1 million for financial aid, $500,000 for maintenance and a 3 percent merit adjustment for employees, effective in January.

The Board also set tuition rates for the 2013-14 school year. Using a new plateau tuition system, undergraduates who are Michigan residents will pay a flat tuition of $6,735 for 12 to 18 credit hours during the fall and spring semesters, an increase of 2.9 percent over this year’s tuition for an average course load of 15 credit hours. This is the lowest increase in tuition since 2004–05, which saw a 2.3 percent hike. Nonresident undergraduates will pay $14,175 for 12 to 18 credits, a 5 percent increase.

The 2.9 percent increase for in-state undergraduate tuition keeps Michigan Tech below tuition caps proposed by the state House, Senate and Governor, the Board was informed.

Resident undergraduates who take less than 12 or more than 18 credit hours will be charged $510 per credit hour. Non-residents taking less than 12 or more than 18 credit hours will pay $1,050 per credit hour.

During the 2014 summer sessions, all undergraduates will pay tuition based on credit hours, at a rate of $458 per credit hour for Michigan residents and $945 per credit hour for nonresidents.   

Graduate tuition will be $789 per credit hour for both residents and nonresidents, except for applied science education and on-campus Peace Corps Master’s International graduate students, whose tuition will be $514 per credit hour.

All international students will pay a $150 surcharge in the fall and spring semesters, in an effort to recover some of the costs that Michigan Tech has had to absorb to meet federal reporting requirements for students from other countries.

In other business, the Board
• Approved proposals for two new degree programs, a Bachelor of Science in Management with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a Master of Geographic Information Science. The BS in Management will be offered by the School of Business and Economics. The MGIS will be offered by the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science.
• Appointed three faculty members to professor emeritus status: Nancy Grimm, Humanities; Mary Ann Beckwith, Visual and Performing Arts; and Susan Martin, Social Sciences.
• Recognized Paulette Morin, a library assistant in the Van Pelt and Opie Library, for 36 years of service to Michigan Tech.
• Approved the initial appointment of Anne Beffel as professor with tenure in Visual and Performing Arts; and promotion of six associate professors with tenure to professor with tenure; two associate professors without tenure to associate professor with tenure; and 18 assistant professors to associate professor with tenure.   
• Heard a report from Vice President for Research David Reed that the dollar total of research awards received by Michigan Tech faculty through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2013 has increased by 15.4 percent over the same period last year.
• Received a report from Provost Max Seel that the University has hired 36 Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative (SFHI) faculty members since the cross-disciplinary research faculty initiative began in 2007, including six new hires in water systems and five new hires in future transportation systems.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.