Ohio State requests tuition hike beyond state maximum

COLUMBUS - Ohio State University's request to raise tuition beyond the maximum allowed by state law has led to officials questioning the entire system of tuition caps.

That was not Ohio State's intention, university President William Kirwan said yesterday.

Ohio State says it must increase tuition 9 percent to fund part of an $800 million academic plan and fall in line with tuitions at comparable universities. The Legislature bars the state's 13 public four-year colleges from increasing tuition by more than 6 percent a year for in-state undergraduates.

The Ohio Board of Regents and university presidents across the state are supporting Ohio State's request. The board and several presidents say they believe each school should be allowed to set its own rates.

Kirwan said other universities are supportive because they recognize that Ohio State's request is a special circumstance not because they want leverage against their own tuition caps.

"This is definitely not the first part of a multi-part strategy to get the caps removed," Kirwan said.

But James Garland, Miami University's president, said an exemption for Ohio State will help other universities make a case for removing tuition caps completely, which is exactly what he hopes will happen.

For Miami, he said, "We're going to be speaking for removal of the cap as a general issue ... but we're not going to be asking for a unique exception," Garland said. "Fee caps are not one-size-fits-all laws, because they don't take into account different universities' needs and circumstances."