LA GRANDE — It is official. Tuition for on-campus students at Eastern Oregon University is set to rise next fall.

The Eastern Oregon University Board of Trustees voted on Wednesday, May 15, to increase tuition 4.5% for on-campus resident students starting with the 2024-25 academic year. The boost was recommended to the board of trustees by the EOU Finance and Administration Committee on April 30.

The increase will boost what on-campus undergraduate students pay per credit hour to $200 in 2024-25. This will keep Eastern’s undergraduate on-campus tuition as the lowest among state universities, according to LeeAnn Case, Eastern’s interim vice president for finance and administration. The next lowest will be Western Oregon University, which will have an on-campus tuition rate of $210 per credit hour starting in the fall.

Chuck Hofmann, a member of the EOU Board of Trustees, said the tuition increase is necessary to help Eastern, which is facing financial challenges, but he wishes it was not needed.

“Nobody is happy about having to raise tuition, but these are the times we live in,” he said.

Tuition for online students will also change. The trustees voted to reduce what out-of-state students pay for online tuition by $13.60 per credit hour to $316. It also voted to raise what in-state online students pay per credit hour by $29.60 to $316 per credit hour.

Having an identical online rate for resident and nonresident students will make things less confusing for online students, said Tressa Seydel, director of advising and operations at EOU.

“It will provide a lot of clarity for students,” she said.

Case said that tuition increases were recommended to the board of trustees because Eastern is not projected to have an enrollment increase in 2024-25. Eastern’s enrollment was up 1.1% in the fall of 2023, after having dropped four of the previous five years.

However, Case said Eastern’s enrollment is not projected to drop in 2024-25 in part because retention rates are improving.

Eastern President Kelly Ryan told the board of trustees the overall retention rate for new and first year transfer students is 82.1% this spring, a rate that is 1.6% higher than it was in the spring of 2023. She added the retention rate this term for first year students is 84.4%, 1.5% higher than it was in the spring of 2023.

The improvement comes after a major focus has been placed on retention in 2023-24.

“This is what success looks like when you focus on retention,” Ryan said. “I’m very proud of the work our staff is doing.”