The steepest tuition hike in years was implemented into USC’s 2017-18 budget at the Board of Trustees meeting June 23.
The latest increase came just under two months before the release of a study conducted by USC’s Darla Moore School of Business, which found that USC provides an annual economic impact of $5.5 billion to the South Carolina economy, including $220 million in annual tax revenue. According to the study, nearly $4.2 billion of that economic impact comes from USC Columbia alone.
Those numbers are more than likely to come up in any negotiations between USC administrators and state legislators over the coming months as the 2018 state budget takes shape.
“This study once again demonstrates that higher education is unquestionably a worthy investment,” said USC President Harris Pastides said after releasing the report's findings on Aug. 14.
Unveiled in front of the board’s Executive Committee, this year's operating budget calls for a 3.46 percent increase of resident and non-resident undergraduate tuition for the coming academic year. After receiving the approval of the Executive Committee, the budget was voted on in the full meeting on June 23. Five members voted against.
The presentation named projected the increased tuition figures as $6,131 per semester for resident undergraduates and $16,181 per semester for non-resident undergraduates, increases of $204 and $540 per semester, respectively. The tuition hike is expected to generate $12.9 million in new revenue for USC in 2017-18.
The hike will likely place USC as the third-most expensive public university in the state behind Winthrop University ($14,510 for in-state undergrads in 2016-17) and Clemson University ($14,318 in 2016-17) this fall. Winthrop and Clemson are both yet to confirm tuition rates for 2017-18.
USC has increased tuition every year since 1987.
Student body president Ross Lordo reacted promptly with a statement in which he referred to the tuition hike’s passage as a “difficult yet unavoidable decision” in the face of plummeting levels of funding from the Statehouse and ongoing construction projects, including a new student union.
“Now, more than ever in our 216-year history, the university will depend more on student-funding than state-funding,” Lordo said. “The flagship institution for the state of South Carolina must rely on its students and parents to fill the financial void our state legislature has decided not to fund. As Carolinians, we must continue to lobby our representatives on behalf of all students — past, present and future.”
A fee to pay for construction of a new student union was one of the platforms Lordo ran his campaign on last year. According to his Friday statement, the fee is included in the 2017-18 tuition hike.
Student reaction to the hike has not been as warm as Lordo’s, with most current Gamecocks lamenting yet another tuition increase and others wondering where the extra $12.9 million will go.
“Frankly, I’m always against paying more for something that I got at a cheaper price the year before,” said third-year computer science student Ryan Davis. “So if anything, I just want to know what’s changing to warrant yet another increase in tuition.”
Michael Vinzani, a second-year biology student, was similarly interested in where the new funding will go.
“If it’s all put to a necessary cause,” Vinzani said, “then the increase is needed. If it’s not then it’s denying individuals the opportunity to learn at a university.”
Fourth-year marine science student Anna Ripley was even less conciliatory.
“I think it’s unfair for universities to continue to raise prices with a college education becoming a standard for many job requirements,” Ripley said.
Further revenue will be generated through increases in academic unit fees for 2017-18, including a doubling of the Greek Village student fee to $250 and a tripling of the fee paid by first-year law students to $1,500.
Traditional housing plans will also be bumped up 3.9 percent to $2,665 per student. USC satellite campuses in Aiken, Beaufort and Spartanburg will see a tuition increase of approximately 3 percent in the upcoming academic year.
Editor-in-chief Adam Orfinger contributed to this article.