Mississippi State University’s tuition is decided through a variety of means.  Tuition is charged on a per credit hour basis and is ultimately decided by the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL), which is the governing board of MSU.  In the past year, MSU’s tuition cost increase was one of the lowest of all the IHL institutions, which includes all public universities in the state of Mississippi.
  The IHL is in charge of deciding the cost of tuition. All decisions have to be submitted to the IHL before deciding what the cost of tuition should be. Jane Kinard, assistant controller for accounts receivable and collections, explained the process.
  “IHL board office is the governing board office that is presented a proposal by Mississippi State and that proposal goes to our governing board and then it goes to the legislature and they approve it,” Kinard said.  
  The proposal is formed by the administration of budget and planning, along with the Office of the Provost and ultimately approved by President Mark Keenum.  It looks at the school’s expenditures and upcoming events that will cause an increase in costs in future months. 
Don Zant vice president for budget and planning, said keeps student’s situations in mind.
 “MSU is also very considerate to the monetary abilities of the students,” Zant said.  
 “We take into the account the ability of the students to be able to pay because we would not want to do anything that would be detrimental and get the tuition too far out of line for students either,” Zant said.
  The cost of tuition for each student is significantly smaller than the amount it costs to actually educate each student.  State appropriations and private donors help cover the extra fees.  
   Tuition has gone up over the last few years.  Various factors determine the reasons for an increase.       Zant said this continues to happen because of the limited state funding and cuts are being made to those funds. The expense of the upkeep of the university is another factor to take into consideration.
 “The whole university was recently cut 3.4 million dollars and it is simply the fact of general operating income and expenses going up,” Zant said.  “The cost of keeping the doors open every year goes up by some amount each year which is uncontrollable.”
   The cost of tuition does not go up in regards to construction happening on campus.  All athletic construction is funded solely by the athletic department.  The department used to receive a portion of ENG funds, but it is now completely self-sufficient.
Zant said no tuition dollars are being used to fund any of the athletics buildings currently being constructed.  “No tuition dollars are harmed in the making of the construction going on.  The athletic facilities totally cover their own costs,” Zant said.
    The new residence halls that are still under construction do not affect the cost of tuition either. The amount students pay to live in the residence halls covers the construction costs. Athletic buildings and residence halls are considered auxiliaries; meaning, the buildings pay for themselves.  Classroom buildings are built through the student capital fee which is a set fee that does not change. 
   Public universities rely on subsidies from their state government, but those subsidies have recently been declining. This forces them to seek private support.  Repairs, improvements and the upkeep of classroom buildings are considered academic and student life type of needs and are partially funded through tuition costs.  Tuition for out-of-state students is higher because the students and their families have not been paying state taxes which helps fund the state’s university.