Mays Business School is one step away from final approval of differential tuition for our undergraduate students. This proposal will be considered by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents at its March meeting. The issue of differential tuition has been mentioned in the media several times of late, and will no doubt be the subject of further media attention. So, I thought it would be useful to let everyone know the specifics.
Differential tuition is a model under which students majoring in a particular college will be charged additional tuition above and beyond the tuition charged by the state and the university. If approved, our upper division students will start paying an additional $610 per semester in fall 2008. While this figure may seem high, I can assure you that even if differential tuition is passed our students will still be paying substantially less than students at comparable business schools across the state, including the University of Texas at Austin.
The funds generated by differential tuition will go directly toward improving the education of those students paying the differential—Mays undergraduate majors. Among other priorities, we intend to offer many more sections, smaller sections, and more electives. These enhancements, in turn, will improve the quality of our program, better prepare our students for their careers, and enhance our national rankings.
The proposal for differential tuition received the support of two different University Tuition Policy Advisory Committees (with strong student representation). Moreover, when we first started exploring this option a couple of years ago a majority of our own students who responded to a survey about differential tuition indicated that the benefits outweighed the costs. The executive committee of the Business Student Council has also endorsed our proposal.
If our board of regents approves the proposal for the Mays differential tuition, students will see an immediate benefit through the addition of almost 50 new sections of regular classes plus 30 special break-out sections of one of our large classes.
For our part, we will accept custodial responsibility for these funds with great seriousness of purpose. We pledge that the differential tuition will directly benefit the students who will pay it. Further, we will insure complete transparency as to how we allocate the differential tuition funds. And we accept full accountability as to the disposition of the differential tuition funds.
Ricky W. Griffin
Interim Dean, Mays Business School
