MSU Tuition Hike

MSU taking up the topic of tuition on Friday, and just how much more they'll ask students to pay for it come fall semester?

MSU is predicting that the state will take a pass on making higher education a priority.

They're betting the state will slash their funding.

So they're turning to the cash cow, the students, and they're turning up the heat.

A cloudy day on campus, and MSU is asking the students to make it rain.

"To almost anybody, I think, it's just a little bit more of a squeeze," says MSU student Michael Davidson.

The University's Board of Trustees approved a 5.2 percent tuition increase on Friday.

It will boost the cost for the average student by more than five hundred bucks.

Say what?

"It's a lot of money to students," says MSU President LouAnna Simon.

As MSU's price tag keeps getting bigger the question increase is, will fewer students end up being able to afford Michigan State?

The president says people won't stop coming.

"People will come to Michigan State, I believe, if we remain one of the world's best, and that's the challenge. It's not what we're going to do in balancing the numbers, it's how we're going to remain the world's best and do this."

Students who don't have the cash squirreled away are now trying to piece together where the cash will come from before the bill is due.

"From financial aid, from depending on my course load, I have to provide the money myself. So it comes from various places. Loans, financial aid, grants, scholarships," says senior Portia McKenzie.

MSU is increasing the financial aid it gives out to compensate for the increase.

Aid will increase by 30% over the next two years.

Of course that increase is paid for in part by tuition increases, so students are footing a bigger bill either way.