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3500 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-3500

Phone: 435.797.2272
Fax: 435.797.2399
Email: huntsman@usu.edu

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Differential Tuition

Dear Students,

Sometimes we get inquiries about business school differential tuition. I have drafted this open letter to give you some background on why this tuition supplement is so vital to the continued success of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

Currently, students enrolled in lower division (1000 and 2000 level) business courses pay $2 per credit hour in business school differential tuition. Students enrolled in upper division (3000, 4000 and 5000 level) business school courses pay $52 per credit hour in business school differential tuition. We estimated this additional tuition adds about $2,100 to the cost of earning a business degree at Utah State University.

The differential tuition for graduate courses is $149 per credit hour in the 2008-09 school year and will increase to $199 per credit hour for the 2009-10 school year.

No one likes to pay higher tuition costs, and we would not ask our students to do so if the need were not urgent. Business schools nationwide have been hit by increased starting salaries, retirements and a "war for talent.” There are more than 1,000 unfilled business faculty positions in the United States alone, according to AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. This problem is expected to become worse before it becomes better.

The explosion of demand for business professors and the reduction in supply has led to such a rapid increase in the offers to new faculty that our salary structures have become "inverted." The average full-professor at a public accredited school like USU earns $20,000 more than the average Jon M. Huntsman School of Business professor makes. It doesn’t take an advanced business degree to figure out what this type of salary inversion can do to an institution. We do not pay our retiring professors enough to attract replacements. Without the additional resources to recruit and retain top faculty, the quality of a USU business degree would be threatened.

The increase in differential tuition was discussed with and supported by a focus group of students. We also consulted with and received the backing of our National Advisory Board. The proposal was unanimously approved by the University Board of Trustees and the State Board of Regents.

We have found that when students understand why this tuition increase is needed they have been more supportive of it. The fact that students back this proposal sends a message to alumni and friends of the Huntsman School of Business that our students are willing to invest in their own education.

We knew from the beginning that raising more money through differential tuition increases would not be enough to address all our challenges. The good news is that our alumni and friends have seen the progress we are making, and they have contributed to our efforts to transform this school.

Thanks to our talented faculty, our dedicated students and the strong support from our alumni and friends, we have established great momentum. We hope we can count on your support as we take the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business to a new level of excellence.

Clifford Skousen
Senior Associate Dean for
Faculty and Administrative Affairs