MTSU Board of Trustees approves 5.39% tuition increase for new academic year

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Board of Trustees raised tuition and mandatory fees by 5.39% for the upcoming 2024-25 academic year during its quarterly meeting Tuesday, June 11, at the Miller Education Center.

The increase in undergraduate, graduate, and out-of-state tuition rates, recommended by the board’s Finance and Personnel Committee, was necessary to meet inflationary adjustments, rising utility costs, increased scholarships, expanded academic programs and other demands.

Stephen Smith, center, chairman of the Middle Tennessee State University Board of Trustees, make a point during the board’s quarterly meeting Tuesday, June 11, at the Miller Education Center on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Looking on is MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee, left, and Board Vice Chair Christine Karbowiak Vanek, right. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)

MTSU is expected to remain lowest in tuition and fees among the state’s three largest universities, including the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the University of Memphis.

Pete Delay, MTSU Board of Trustees member. — Pete Delay

“The committee reviewed materials containing the tuition rates of other Tennessee public institutions, as well as peer institutions, and found that even with the proposed fee increase, MTSU ranked as very affordable in comparison,” said Committee Chair Pete DeLay.

The increase means an undergraduate in-state student taking 15 credit hours would pay an additional $518 per year.

Also, trustees approved an increase of 3.5% in housing rates.

In other business, trustees:

Dr. Sidney A. McPhee, MTSU president — Dr. Sidney A. McPhee

• Heard a report from President Sidney A. McPhee that enrollment for Fall 2024, compared to the same day last year, is up by 1.42%, with new undergraduate numbers up 2% and graduate number up 1.2%. “To put this in context,” McPhee said, “we had an overall enrollment increase last academic year.”

• Approved the appointment of Khalilah T. Doss as vice president of student affairs, replacing Sarah Sudak, who held the job on an interim basis for the 2023-24 academic year. Doss, who starts July 15, comes to MTSU from a similar role at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville and previous service at McPherson College in Kansas and Lincoln University of Missouri.

Khalilah Doss, the new vice president of student affairs at Middle Tennessee State University, addresses the university’s Board of Trustees after her appointment during the board’s quarterly meeting Tuesday, June 11, at the Miller Education Center on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Looking on are University Provost Mark Byrnes, far right, and Alan Thomas, vice president for business finance. (MTSU photo by J. Intintoli)

• Approved 34 faculty candidates recommended for tenure and 55 candidates for promotion.

• Approved a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for employees, which equates to a 2% increase with a $750 minimum, and increased faculty promotion awards, which have been in place since 2012-13.

• Thanked Molly Mihm for her service as MTSU’s seventh student trustee and approved her replacement, junior economics major Shaylaine Roker, a native of the Bahamas.

• Approved MTSU’s capital outlay request to the state for the 2025-26 fiscal year, a Civic Leadership and Applied Humanities Building that would provide academic classrooms, class labs, faculty and staff offices, and support space for selected College of Liberal Arts departments and the associated Center for Innovation and Leadership, History Museum, and MTSU archives and exhibit spaces.

— Andrew Oppmann (Andrew.Oppmann@mtsu.edu)