Below is the email President Gary Ransdell sent to faculty and staff at approximately 3:30 p.m. detailing the Council on Postsecondary Education’s rejection of WKU’s proposed five percent tuition increase. 

Fellow Faculty and Staff: 

The Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), unfortunately, did not approve our request for a five percent tuition increase at its meeting today.  Rather, they approved a three percent cap on a resident, undergraduate, face-to-face student tuition increase for all Kentucky public campuses.  The CPE was sympathetic to our fiscal realities; but ultimately, the council agreed to accept the CPE staff’s recommendation of three percent.  We will likely, however, still recommend to our Board of Regents a five percent increase for graduate students, non-resident students, and online learners. 

A five percent increase would have given us a balanced budget for next year with no cuts.  This CPE action, however, means that we have budget work to do before taking a balanced budget to our Board of Regents in June. 

We will take this in stride as we have done for the last several years.  I have asked the Vice Presidents to begin making recommendations as we begin budget reduction conversations on Monday.  Every effort will be made to protect as many jobs as possible and to act in the best interest of our students and employees.  I will be back in touch in due course as options take shape.  Thank you.

Gary A. Ransdell