As Sam Houston State University continues to expand at rapid rates, the need for upgraded facilities like classrooms, laboratories and academic buildings is at a high. In order to allow for these expansions, the fall 2015 tuition is slated to increase by roughly $200 per semester.
University President Dana G. Hoyt explained how this number was created at the Student Government Association meeting Tuesday.
“The university sets our priorities and looks at our needs,” Hoyt said. “Then we also look at our legislative and budget requests.”
The increase in tuition will help cover the costs of raises for faculty and staff, fixed as well as start-up rates for programs and databases used around campus, and 20 new faculty positions which the university hired over the summer, according to Hoyt.
For the upcoming 84th state legislature, SHSU will request $60 million in tuition revenue bonds in order to expand and improve the science buildings on campus.
“We’re in desperate need of science and laboratory space,” Hoyt said. “Our priority for this session is that science building. If I were to go back and name a second, an art building would be close because we really need a visual arts complex.”
As well as expanding SHSU’s main campus, $3 million will be requested to finish building construction at SHSU The Woodlands Center.
“We’re trying to spend some funding to try and upgrade some academic buildings on campus,” Hoyt said. “All across the state, universities are requesting an increase in this fund so [universities] can maintain the facilities that are getting older and older.”
Hoyt is holding an open forum Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center Theater to present her plan to the rest of the student body and answer questions.
See more about SHSU and its requests for TRB’s in Thursday’s edition of The Houstonian.