For the second year in a row, University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan plans to recommend a tuition freeze for the roughly 50,000 in-state undergraduate students in the system next academic year in recognition of the financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a video released as part of his State of the University address, Meehan also said UMass is striving toward having “near normal operations” in the fall with virtually all students attending in-person classes and employees returning to campuses.
The freeze means UMass would forgo $14.3 million in revenue that it could have generated with a tuition hike to match inflation, officials said. Meehan said the tuition freeze is “made possible by the support of our federal legislative delegation, who recently passed the American Rescue Plan Act, and our partners in both the state legislature and Gov. Baker’s administration.”
“To lessen the financial burden on our students and their families, many of whom have suffered from job losses, business closures and other impacts of COVID-19, I will recommend to the university board of trustees that we will freeze tuition for in-state undergraduate students for the second consecutive year,” Meehan said in the video, filmed in a research lab at UMass Medical School.
The $39.6 billion for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund included in the $1.9 trillion spending and COVID-19 relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden last week is estimated to direct $133.6 million to UMass and its students, with roughly half of the total going toward student financial aid and half being used for campus operations, a UMass official said.
Last week, Meehan and the UMass chancellors issued a statement cheering the legislation’s passage.
“The funding it provides to our campuses and students will be critical in our efforts to sustain our mission of teaching, research and service, which will help drive the post-pandemic economic recovery of the commonwealth,” the UMass leaders said.
Meehan’s recommendation for a tuition freeze must be approved by the UMass board of trustees to become effective and Chairman Robert Manning suggested in a press statement Tuesday that he’s on board with the idea.
“President Meehan’s recommendation reflects his recognition that our students and their families have been dealing with significant financial hardship throughout this pandemic. The board shares this concern,” he said.
No date has been set for the board’s consideration or decision on Meehan’s request, UMass said. The board’s Committee on Administration & Finance, which is likely to review the proposal, is scheduled to meet April 7 and June 9. The full board has meetings scheduled for April 14 and June 10. The board’s decision on tuition generally comes at its June meeting.
Tuition rates for out-of-state undergraduates and for graduate students will be determined in the coming months as UMass works through its budget planning process, an official said.
UMass said its average pre-financial aid in-state undergraduate tuition was $14,722 for the last two academic years, a lower rate than the University of Vermont ($19,062), the University of New Hampshire ($18,938), the University of Connecticut ($17,834) and the University of Rhode Island ($15,004), but more than what the University of Maine charges its in-state undergraduates ($11,712).
Meehan said UMass “will continue to advocate for additional targeted support from the state for our most vulnerable students.”
In July, the UMass board approved a $3.3 billion budget that froze 2020-21 academic year tuition for the first time in six years, which meant $18.6 million in forgone revenue for the system. UMass also had to cut about 6% of its full-time equivalent workforce and furlough thousands of others to close what was at the time a $264 million budget gap. That grew to a $335 million shortfall when the system went mostly remote in the fall.