The University announced a 10 percent tuition increase for in-state students and a 15 percent increase for out-of-state students Tuesday, taking full advantage of the LA GRAD act.
The act allows the “LSU Board of Supervisors to adjust campus tuition and mandatory fees up to 10 percent annually until the campus reaches the average tuition and fee amounts of its peer institutions.”
According to Meg Casper, Board of Regents’ Associate Commissioner for Public Affairs, the LA GRAD Act only deals with in-state tuition. A broadcast email sent to students Tuesday mentioned Revised Statute 17:3351, which deals specifically with nonresident students.
Before the University can raise tuition, it must meet a certain number of goals.
Larry Tremblay, deputy commissioner for Planning, Research and Academic Affairs for the Board of Regents, said  student success is the most important.
“It’s all based on student success,” Tremblay said in the board’s June meeting. “If an institution doesn’t pass the student success standards, then they don’t pass. It’s that simple.”
Because the University met a satisfactory number of goals, students will see an increase of $318 in in-state tuition, based on a 15 hour course load. Out-of-state students will pay $1,452 more each semester for the same number of hours. The changes take effect immediately.
Provost Jack Hamilton said in a June meeting with The Daily Reveille that increasing tuition is the main way the University can supplement its declining budget.
“Cuts have put the University in a difficult situation,” he said. “Raising tuition is one of the ways that we can fill a portion of the deficit. But there is no easy solution.”
 
____ Contact Joshua Bergeron at [email protected]