CSU Students Face 20 Percent Tuition Hike

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4/AP) - Members of the Colorado State University board of governors have approved a 20 percent tuition hike for full-time in-state students at the Fort Collins campus.

Resident undergraduate students will pay more than $6,300 in tuition next year under the plan approved Monday by the board. That's an increase of more than $1,000 annually.

"If I want to be able to pay off these loans and also be able to save up money for when I move and go to grad school, this 20 percent is not helping," student Moriah Echlin said.

According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the increase comes by raising the credit hour cap from 10 credit-hours per semester to 12 credit hours.

"We really feel we've cut wherever we can and unfortunately the result is needing to raise tuition to cover those costs," CSU spokesman Brad Bohlander said.

Bohlander says the tuition increase will help make up for a $23 million cut in state funding this year.

"We're still significantly below what our in-state peers, the other research universities charge in-state," he said. "We are still a good value, but even with that we know a 20 percent increase is not easy news to take if you're writing that check."

Non-resident undergraduates will pay $22,000 annually, up 3 percent.

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