COLUMBUS – Ohio State University students and their families likely are getting a reprieve on the cost of college next year: What was to be a 2 percent hike in room rates for next fall has been dropped from a set of tuition and fee recommendations.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The Board of Trustees is to act today on the recommendations, approved by the board’s finance committee on Thursday. If they are approved, it will mean tuition and housing costs for Ohio State undergraduates who live in the state will have remained unchanged two years in a row. The freeze on tuition was mandated in the state budget.
After staff members recommended including the housing increase, President Michael V. Drake asked them to look for ways to avoid the hike, university spokesman Ben Johnson said. Taking into account the opening of new residence halls in the North Residential District, Johnson said, “What they found was good news.”
Ohio State still could wind up with among the most-expensive college housing in the state or the Big Ten. The current annual rate for the most-common room type, at $7,876, is the highest among Ohio state schools and second only to Northwestern University in the Big Ten. According to the university’s projection of what the other schools are expected to charge next year, an unchanged rate for Ohio State would not change its position relative to the other schools.