ISSUED: 24 February 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Shepherd University Board of Governors approved a 2.2 percent tuition and fees increase for fall semester 2017 during its February 23 meeting. There will be no rate increase for traditional and suite-style housing and a small decrease in the rate for apartment-style housing. Meal plans also will have no rate increase.
Tuition for undergraduate in-state residents will increase by $79 per semester (from $3,585 to $3,664) and undergraduate out-of-state tuition will increase by $192 per semester (from $8,742 to $8,934). A portion of the increase will facilitate increased shuttle bus services on campus.
In-state graduate tuition will increase by $10 per credit hour (from $435 to $445), and out-of-state tuition will increase by $14 per credit hour (from $622 to $636). The Doctor of Nursing Practice degree will increase by $15 per credit hour (from $681 to $696).
A major factor leading to the tuition and fees increase is the decrease in state funding. Since fiscal year 2013, state appropriations to Shepherd have decreased by 16.63 percent ($1.98 million). Additionally, Shepherd is last among its peer state colleges and universities in regard to the amount of state appropriations it receives.
New Board of Governors member Henry Kayes, Jr. was given the oath of office by Dr. Marcia Brand, Board of Governors chair. Kayes is chief operating officer and regional president for United Bank Incorporated and is responsible for the bank’s West Virginia market. He was a founder of Centra Bank Berkeley County in 2001 and served as its president from 2001 to 2012.
Prior to that he served as senior vice president and market president of BB&T Bank for the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia. Kayes is a lifelong career banker who started in the training program of First Union National Bank of North Carolina in 1986. He is a graduate of Elon University.
A native of Huntington, he and his wife, Amy, have two daughters, Meredith and Caroline. Amy is a Shepherd University graduate, and Meredith is currently a junior at Shepherd studying elementary education.
In other business, the Board of Governors approved intents to plan two new baccalaureate programs: a Bachelors of Arts in Appalachian studies and a Bachelor of Arts in contemporary theater studies.
— 30 —