OC tuition prices could see slight spike

Photo by: Henoc Kivuye

Since President John deSteiguer’s inauguration, tuition has remained frozen – but those days could be ending.

Every February, Oklahoma Christian University announces the tuition for the upcoming school year.

Since the 2011-2012 school year the prices for tuition have stayed the same, but deSteiguer doesn’t see it lasting much longer.

“I am convinced we will have a slight increase this next year,” deSteiguer said.

To keep tuition prices the same for past semesters, senior Jillian Bryson said the school had to cut a few expenditures, including the tennis program.

“They’ve also had to cut a lot of the teams to make tuition prices lower so the school isn’t spending money where they don’t need to be spending money,” Bryson said

Vice President for Finance Jeff Bingham noted the tuition covers a majority of the university’s budget.

“Eight-five percent of our budget is paid for by the student tuition,” Bingham said.

Housing costs depend on more than just the number of students opting for on-campus housing.

“You have to pay for buildings, you have to pay for insurance and utilities and repairs,” Bingham said.

In the past few years, Oklahoma Christian has poured effort into flat rates.

“The university’s had to be very diligent in trying to get control of its budget,” Bingham said. “We’ve tried to control cost the last few years for prices to remain the same and that takes a lot of work.”

Bingham said next year’s budget is still in the planning phase.

“We haven’t found alliance and discussions about what prices need to be for next year,” Bingham said. “We review our budget every year and try to decide what we can and can’t afford.”

Bingham reiterated the administration is careful about the subject of tuition, and that to finalize the decision they have to go to the board of trustees.

deSteiguer said that a lot of discussion goes into decisions on prices.

“There are a lot of things that go into the analysis of how you price things,” deSteiguer said. “We are very, very sensitive to the cost. Affordability for our students and their families is very, very important to us, and that’s why we’ve been able to freeze the cost of tuition the last two years. On the other hand, though, we’ve had expenses here at the university go up.”

In the past, figuring the prices have included room and board, classes, and the permission of the trustees, which has not been needed for the past two years.

“It’s a pretty complicated look at a lot of things to determine what pricing is,” deSteiguer said.

Concerning potential outcry at the increase, deSteiguer noted that administration sees the potential increase in tuition as well worth the value of the education received – a natural part of the system.

“When the prices increase, and we’re going to keep that as minimal as we can, we know that’s going to be something that folks take a look at,” deSteiguer said. “We believe that Oklahoma Christian is of very, very good value for the price. While affordability is very important to us, we’re not apologetic for having to raise prices a little bit.”

The official announcement and decision about prices will take place in February, giving students and families time to plan for the next year.