Just as Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed next year's $4.187 billion state budget Friday afternoon, West Virginia University's Board of Governors unanimously approved a $1.04 billion budget that raises the cost of tuition and fees while simultaneously increasing need-based financial aid.
Narvel Weese, the school's vice president for administration and finance, said before the Legislature reached a budget agreement that WVU was looking at contingency plans for what would happen if the state government shut down.
"We were doing some scenario planning," Weese said. "We looked at how to shut down farms, how to shut down research [and] how to deal with students who were in summer school," but the school had some contractual obligations with some grant money that it couldn't renege on.
Over three years, WVU has sustained $30 million in cuts from its state appropriations, according to a news release issued Friday. The school's appropriations were cut by $5.4 million halfway through last year's budget.
But still, Weese said the school needed to increase tuition.
In-state, undergraduate tuition will go up $180, or 4.7 percent, while out-of-state undergraduate tuition will go up $528, or 4.9 percent. In-state graduate tuition will go up $216, or 5 percent, and out-of-state graduate tuition will go up $549, or 4.96 percent.
WVU plans to dole out an extra $2.4 million in need-based financial aid, in light of the tuition increases.
The cost of housing and meal plans, although varied, will all go up about 3.5 percent.
Every member of the board, including two faculty representatives and George Capel, student representative on the board, approved the budget. At last year's budget talks, Chris Nyden, the student voice on the board at the time, decried tuition increases as "absurd" and "unsustainable."
Capel, the school's former student body president, did not respond to multiple requests for comment in time for this report.
Because of improved student retention, WVU expects to gain about $2 million in tuition and fees revenue, budget documents show.
WVU President Gordon Gee said there will be 12 "Transformation Teams" that will attempt to identify ways to reduce spending at the university by at least $45 million over the next five years. This year's budget is expected to receive $26.9 million from those transformation teams and other initiatives.
The budget's expenses also account for $1.5 million for an "employee retention program," and $1.8 million for "institution PEIA rate increases not covered by additional state appropriations."
"The importance of this university has accelerated, given the transformation this state is going to go through in terms of its fundamental economic activities," Gee said. "All of a sudden, the university becomes an economic engine for the state."
Gee said WVU creates jobs and economic opportunities across the state.
"I don't want to overstate it," Gee said, "but I really do believe that higher education at this university has an even more important role than when I came here two years ago."
This time last year, WVU's board approved a 10 percent tuition increase. In response, the university launched a $50 million "Dream First" campaign, to off-set the tuition increases. Gee said the school raised $40 million, about 80 percent of its goal, in just a year's time.
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939 or follow @NewsroomJake on Twitter.