A state lawmaker said a tuition waiver policy in place for Oklahoma State University's Tulsa campus is "predatory" toward smaller state schools and "discriminatory" to the school's current students.
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State Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City, has called for two boards of regents to investigate the policy, which OSU has touted with large color ads in the Tulsa World.
A spokesman for OSU said the program isn't designed to lure students from other four-year schools, but from two-year schools such as Tulsa Community College.
Under the "Cowboy Commitment" tuition assistance program, eligible students who transfer to OSU-Tulsa from any Oklahoma college or university will receive a $650 waiver toward tuition.
To be eligible, students must be enrolled in at least six credit hours per semester. The transferring student's grade point average would determine how many semesters the tuition waiver would last, up to three semesters.
In the ad, OSU said that with "today's troubled economy, many students and their parents worry about paying for college. OSU-Tulsa understands that times are tough and we want to help."
Shelton questioned that motive, citing rising tuition and mandatory fee rates. In June, the OSU/A&M Board of Regents approved tuition and fee increases of 9.9 percent for the OSU-Tulsa campus, meaning an in-state undergraduate student would pay $6,201 annually.
Shelton said students already enrolled at OSU-Tulsa, or incoming freshmen considering the school, would be penalized by the new policy.
"OSU-Tulsa said the dramatic rate increase was necessary because of tough economic conditions," Shelton said. "If times are that tough, why would they now implement those increases for only a handful of students? The school is actually punishing students for choosing to go to OSU-Tulsa."
That's not true, OSU spokesman Gary Shutt said, noting the tuition waiver program has been in place for several years. The difference this year, Shutt said, is OSU lowered the grade-point average required for eligibility to 2.5.
Many students at OSU-Tulsa, which offers only junior- and senior-level classes, already participate in the program, he said.
Shelton, a graduate of Langston University — which has a satellite campus in Tulsa — said he also is concerned about regents "allowing anybody to tempt students away from another state university."
Shutt said it's conceivable that students could transfer from other four-year schools to OSU-Tulsa, but that OSU's intent of offering the waiver is to attract students from state junior colleges. Shutt said 90 percent of OSU-Tulsa students come from Tulsa Community College.
Shelton wants the OSU/A&M regents — who oversee both OSU and Langston — and the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to investigate the tuition waiver plan.
State regents spokesman Ben Hardcastle said that board's policy is to give "a lot of latitude on how they administer the tuition waivers" to other regents' boards that directly govern the institutions.
"That would be considered a governing board issue," he said.
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It wasn't that long ago that the governor of our state only made around $70k per year, and now we have administrators of higher ed making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. I think I read recently that Johnson was given a raise to about $287k plus benefits, with a $10k bonus. That is a lot of tax dollars, though as an EX-politician, he's making more now than he ever did as an elected official. Why are these morons allowed to give themselves raises year after year with no voter input? Oh yeah, they got used to it while in office. No wonder college is getting out of reach for the average citizen--have to pay for the fat ex-politician's salaries first.
Predatory is giving big Glen Johnson a raise already. He is already overpaid and giving him more money after jacking up tuition costs the maximum allowed is bad politics and bad policy. But then again, Mr. Massey and his minions at the Regents don't face the voters, do they. The legislature, even with its many warts, is at least responsible to the public. And it's time that lawmakers took back some of their control. Spending is completely out of control at these schools, especially the one that the former speaker ran recently. Yet they continue to ask for record increases in funding and if they don't get it all, they stick it to the students. When in reality, anyone with initiative could get a far better education from wikipedia.
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