Montclair State University Freezes Tuition Due To Coronavirus – Montclair, NJ Patch

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Montclair State University will be freezing tuition, fees and room-and-board rates for the 2020-2021 academic year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The university’s board of trustees voted to approve the temporary freeze on Wednesday.

Here’s what an education at MSU will cost for now, administrators said:

“Tuition at the public research university will be $6,040 per semester for in-state, undergraduate students attending full time. The rate for out-of-state students will remain $10,020. Mandatory fees will also be frozen at $495 per semester. Graduate tuition and fee rates for graduate programs will also remain flat. Out-of-state graduate students will also now pay the same rates as New Jersey residents. In addition, summer 2021 tuition and fees for undergraduates will continue to be 12 percent lower than the fall and spring rates.”

“The board of trustees and I both feel strongly that, in the current very difficult economic environment, any increase in the costs of attendance would pose a hardship for many students,” President Susan Cole said.

“Although the pandemic has caused significant reductions to our revenues and increases to our expenses, including a substantial cut in state funding, it would not be responsible to ask our students to cover a continuing shift of the cost of public higher education from the state to families,” Cole said.

Assuming that the state of New Jersey allows the campuses to reopen this fall under stage three of Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan, MSU plans to offer a “range of in-person, online and hybrid classes.” Student services will be offered in person and also will continue to be provided remotely, administrators said.

Fall classes will begin Tuesday, Aug. 25, a week earlier than in previous years, and end a week earlier, on Monday, Dec. 14, with no students returning to on-campus instruction following the Thanksgiving recess.

The period after Thanksgiving will be limited to remotely delivered instruction, projects, and final exams. This change will significantly decrease the population density on campus at the time when respiratory viruses, including the coronavirus, typically become more active, administrators said.

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