5%: That’s how much the University of Toledo is required to cut from in-state cost of attendance

The University of Toledo submitted a proposal last Thursday to the Ohio Department of Higher Education

According to the proposal, the average cost for in-state students equals $16,217 a year and $64,868 for four years. This includes the cost for undergrad tuition, fees, room, board and textbooks.

Rhonda Wingfield, director of budgets and planning, said UT has already taken measures to help reduce the cost of attendance by increasing the scholarship budget for direct-from-high-school students by $7.5 million and offering a 25 percent housing discount to students living on campus.

Wingfield also said UT’s participation in the College Credit Plus program has helped high school students earn college credits, lessening the credits they will have to pay for in college.

“The average participant completes 30 credit hours, which is equivalent to one year of undergraduate savings,” she said. “UT has increased the number of students participating in the program by more than 40 percent in the last two academic years.”

According to the proposal, UT has several ideas on how to further cut back the cost of attendance including lowering the minimum credit hours for a bachelors degree from 124 to 120, developing a program to assist faculty in transitioning to open-source materials and implementing a program to identify at-risk students to help them stay on track to degree completion.

Wingfield said if a student took advantage of all the cost-saving incentives already in place or that will be in the future, they would save a total of $36,280.

Cody Spoon, Student Government president, said he believes UT can reduce the extra cost of tuition is by eliminating the fees which occur when a student takes over 16 credit hours.

“This incentivizes students to take more classes, which can decrease graduation time and allow students to pursue heavy course loads affordably,” Spoon said. “As an engineering major, I have already paid the university an extra one percent of my total collegiate costs thus far just to take my bare-minimum course requirements during 17- and 18-credit hour semesters.”

Spoon also said UT should look at the cost of on-campus housing and focus on getting more students to live on campus.

“Why is it that we don’t have a housing occupancy close to 100%, yet apartment complexes thrive along the borders of campus?” Spoon said. “I am fairly confident that by finding ways to reduce the cost of on-campus living, more students will live on campus. This may in fact result in UT gaining money by making cuts.”

Wingfield said UT is committed to continuing to offer discounts for students so they can continue their education.

“The programs UT has put in place help reduce the cost of attendance to potentially more students and also support those students to be successful in completing their courses and achieving their goal of a college degree,” Wingfield said.