College expenses often come under criticism from the students who pay them, and the possibility of changing prices are a source of worry; for this University’s upcoming undergraduate students, those potential fluctuations may no longer cause headaches.

Approved at the school’s trustee board meeting Dec. 9, 2018, the Falcon Tuition Guarantee aims to establish that “what (students) pay as freshmen will be what they continue to pay as seniors,” according to a quote from former University president Mary Ellen Mazey.

The plan looks to primarily address students enrolling for and after the 2018 fall semester, with ongoing and current students not eligible for inclusion in the program.

The first group will be placed in a “cohort” for the 2019 academic year. The cohort, and all future academic years’ cohorts, will lock the rates for tuition, housing and dining, as well as special purpose fees and standard-level course expenses, for students within it. So long as students are enrolled at the University for a consecutive 12 semesters, they have access to these guaranteed rates.

Summer 2018 semester students will initially be considered part of the ineligible group, but will be allowed in the program by the fall, and their fees “stabilized for the remainder of their four-year undergraduate careers,” according to the University website.

Dave Kielmeyer, the University’s chief marketing and communications officer, also talked about the program, saying an incoming freshman should be able to look at their 12-semester college career plan and say, “’This is my cost.”’

While the program can help with student state of mind issues, one of the University’s main reasons for creating it is to generate more revenue. According to Kielmeyer, expenses for employee wages, lighting, energy and other have increased, but state subsidies have not risen to meet such increases.

“To maintain our level of service,” he said, the University has created this plan.

He said that, while “there wouldn’t be a disadvantage to staying in your cohort,” there is a high probability prices will increase or remain constant between cohorts.

Sharon Schwartz, the University’s director of budgeting, said state standards would allow the University to shift tuition from 1.3 to 1.5 percent between cohorts.

The school’s Information Technology Services has already begun making changes to digital systems to accommodate the program. John Ellinger, chief information officer for the school, said in an email the Campus Solutions (CSS) student system was ready to sort incoming freshmen into cohorts.

Though the system can sort students effectively into cohorts, the capability for students to review their cohorts will come later. “We are in the process of making a change to dynamic billing in student portal so that students can see which cohort they are in,” Ellinger said. “This will be done by the April 30 date for the incoming Freshman.”

He also said changes to the system handling Residence Life and dining issues, which he called “StarRez,” will be completed by July 30.

While the fees most students must pay will be included in the program, many additional and optional fees will not be factored in. These fees include expenses for high-cost programs, such as the flight or the international studies programs, which tend to fluctuate by the year; fees for University services, such as the green, legal and media fees, with opt-out options; and optional fees attached to items like parking permits or courses taken over the credit limit.

Out-of-state rates will also not change, which will benefit students like Thomas Edgar, a sports management major from Massachusetts. For Edgar, who believes out-of-state costs could afford to go down $5000 to $3000, the University’s current fee makes it financially competitive with many Massachusetts schools’ costs.

However, despite the price similarities, Edgar said the presence of the out-of-state fee did give him additional financial struggles, enough for him to apply for a resident assistant position for additional income. “I’m out-of-state, so it’s a little more,” he said. “(I) was forced to get a job.”

Despite the problems with the additional cost, however, Edgar said changing costs was not a concern during enrollment last fall. It was his understanding, as well as his parents,’ that out-of-state costs did not change much and would not change.

For Dresden Wilson, sophomore biology major, ideas of tuition costs were similarly consistent. “Honestly, I really didn’t have any expectations my price would change,” she said.

For University officials, this has not been an option since 2013, as pressure from the state government convinced the Board of Trustees to freeze in-state fees at $10,606.

“Under the current state budget,” Schwartz said, “we’ve not been permitted to change the budget.” The approval of this tuition program will allow the University to shift prices between cohort years.

Wilson said she was glad no large change has been made to the University’s tuition fee, as she had arranged for her parents to pay that expense. She said she would feel guilty for making that arrangement if the price of tuition were more open to changes.

She mentioned that she would have preferred participating in this tuition guarantee program to ensure such a tension would not be on her mind.

However, when asked about her issues with college payments, she said her largest gripe was with the estimation process. She said, “I feel like a lot of estimates … are pretty low,” and added she would have preferred more advisors along the way to provide guesses at costs that would address additional expenses.

The University’s website noted the last time the tuition was increased, fall 2013, was the year Ohio House Bill 59 passed, which allowed Ohio public Universities to plan such tuition guarantee programs.

Summer, fall and spring semesters at and after Fall 2018 will fall directly into the program’s plan, but students taking classes in the winter semester, which premiers January 2019, in the program will be charged for credit hours based on cohort credit cost rates.

Though consecutive enrollment for four academic years is the ideal model for the program, it does allow for students with certain circumstances (including disability and military leave) to remain in their cohort, even with a college career longer than four years. This is also the case for students with majors that are expected to last more than 12 semesters, including music performance and art education.

All non-excepted students will be placed in the cohort directly following their initial one should they attend school for more than the allotted time, and will be charged at that cohort’s rates.