Tuition and fees at UMass Boston will rise 3 percent, or $125 per year, in 1999 - 2000 over the current rates. The Board of Trustees voted the increase, along with setting rates at the four other University of Massachusetts campuses, at its meeting last month.
On average, the University of Massachusetts tuition and fees are
rising at a lower rate than the current 1.6 percent inflation,
according to President William Bulger. And, in fact, UMass Boston's
average undergraduate annual tuition will decrease from $1,904 to
$1,809 for Massachusetts residents. However, UMass Boston will
increase its fees, mainly based on a new technology fee, creating the
total tuition and fee increase. "We are being sensitive to pressures
on students and parents," said Bulger. Tuition and fee costs remain
lower than they were in 1996.
The new technology fee, which will be charged to all students, will
be put directly into a special fund reserved to meet additional
student technology requirements. Some of the specific impacts the fee
will have include:
"If they don't put those labs in and that technology in," said Trustee Chair Robert Karam, "it's like not giving [students] books 20 years ago." The university implemented a cost containment effort in 1996. Once the second most expensive of the six New England public higher education systems, UMass now ranks fifth.