The University of Rhode Island Board of Trustees has announced a plan to increase tuition by 3.5% and fees by 0.9% for the 2024-2025 school year. This will raise the cost by $1,208 for Rhode Islanders and $1,716 for out-of-staters. The total cost will be $31,566 for the former and $51,650 for the latter; this is not affordable! While inexpensive compared to other schools, URI still costs too much for most students/families to afford. Inflation is still high and student loans result in decades of debt. Increasing tuition for the third straight year appears to be an attempt to take advantage of cash-strapped students and families, many of whom are already struggling to find financial stability. Taken directly from the University's proposal, "this level of increase provides maximum net revenue to the university." Higher education is becoming more and more necessary for the American workforce and this tuition increase would further restrict access to it. However, the aforementioned proposal disagrees stating that the increases will, "[keep] URI education accessible and [limit] potential enrollment declines." This shows that the University is out of touch with the needs of its stakeholders. The Board of Trustees is meeting on Friday, 2/16, with plans to approve this proposal so we must act fast. The University knows that their plan may backfire as their proposal states, "Unprecedented market conditions... increases risk of volatility in assumptions." It's time that we show them that we know this too. Please consider signing this petition for we must prevent URI from becoming less affordable than it already is!

WPRI article: https://www.wpri.com/news/education/uri-proposes-3-5-tuition-increase-for-next-school-year/#:~:text=A%20spokesperson%20for%20the%20university,increase%20in%20mandatory%20undergraduate%20fees

URI proposal: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eRkvaMHfZ2blnuCLojJhNKe1rH2fhcTu/view