University of D.C. Raises Tuition and Student Fees

Tuition and student fees are increasing for the first time in nearly a decade at the University of the District of Columbia in a two-step process that will add $625 per semester to the bill of a full-time undergraduate, officials said yesterday.

The additional revenue is needed to continue programs and expand teacher development, student counseling and other areas of the university, President William Lawrence Pollard said. It will also help with basics: Utility bills are rising about $150,000 a year, he said, and the city is not providing money to cover that increase.

"Education is like anything else you buy," Pollard said. "You get what you pay for."

Although the average price of attending U.S. public colleges has risen about 50 percent over the past decade, tuition at UDC, the District's only public higher education institution, has been static. Pollard, who became president in 2002, said he realized that the status quo could not continue and began researching the issue two years ago.

He wanted to institute a new cost structure last fall and took a proposal to the board of trustees in June, but there was not a quorum to vote. It was only recently that D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) filled long-open spots on the board. The proposal was approved Jan. 17 by the entire board, including the student representative.

Next year, the cost for a full-time undergraduate D.C. resident to attend UDC will rise from $1,260 to $1,605 per semester, and it will jump to $1,885 the year after that. For nonresidents, tuition and fees will increase from $2,910 to $3,535 over those two years.

By fall 2007, resident graduate students, who now pay $2,511 per semester, will pay $599 more, and nonresident graduate students, who pay $4,083 per semester, will pay an additional $427. Resident law students, who are charged $3,635 a semester, will see an increase of $335, and nonresidents, whose tab is $7,135 a semester, will pay $510 more.

UDC expects to collect an additional $3.1 million in revenue in the first year of the increases. Officials did not provide an estimate for the second year. The last tuition increase at UDC was in 1997 and the last fee increase in 1999.