JACKSON, Miss. — Delta State University will become the first of Mississippi’s eight public universities to allow all non-Mississippi residents to pay the same tuition rates as students who live in the state.
After College Board approval Thursday in a meeting at Oxford, five of the eight schools now plan to waive nonresident charges for at least some students.
The University of Mississippi will waive nonresident charges for military veterans and certain incoming freshmen with strong academic credentials.
They join Alcorn State University, Jackson State University and Mississippi University for Women, which won approval for waivers from the College Board during the summer. Ole Miss and Delta State will roll out their new waivers in Fall 2013.
The Legislature passed a law this year allowing universities to reduce tuition to in-state levels for some non-Mississippians. The schools lobbied for the measure, saying public colleges in other states were waiving charges for Mississippi students. College officials say the idea is to lure students who wouldn’t otherwise attend, increasing revenue for schools. Mississippi universities have become increasingly dependent on tuition in recent years, as state appropriations have stagnated or fallen.
Mississippi residents pay up to $5,580 for two semesters of full-time tuition at Delta State this year. Non-residents pay up to $14,436. As at most schools, many students from both groups will pay less because of financial aid.
While Delta State’s waiver for all non-Mississippians is the most aggressive policy yet, in reality it would have little immediate effect on the 4,600-student university’s finances. That’s because Delta State has only 269 out-of-state students and already waives the non-resident surcharge for 231 of them. It collects less than $350,000 a year from the remaining 38.
