OKLAHOMA CITY

Student leaders say they've come to expect tuition increases every year, but concern is growing among some lawmakers and educators about pricing working-class kids out of a college education.

Some student leaders seemed to take in stride the vote by the Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education last week to raise tuition rates and mandatory fees for resident students by an average of 8.6 percent.

It was the fifth year in a row that tuition had been raised since the Legislature, which used to set college rates, turned that sole authority over to the state regents.

The tuition and fee increases were 10 percent or more at two schools and 9 percent or more at nine others, including the state's two comprehensive universities the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.

Next year, the cost for 30 credit hours will be $14,915 at OSU and $14,721 at OU.

Jordon McGee of Edmond, chairman of the University of Oklahoma Student Association Student Congress, said OU President David Boren had done a good job of explaining the need for the increases.

"I know that the university is being put in a tough situation with costs rising pretty much everywhere," he said.

Olaf Standley of Northeastern State University attended the meeting when state regents, with no discussion, approved tuition and fee schedules approved earlier by boards governing 25 colleges and universities across the state.

"Tuition is going to have to go up, especially since we haven't received enough money from the Legislature," said Standley, a member of a student advisory board to the state regents.

"I've never been in college when there wasn't a tuition increase," said McGee, a senior English major at OU.

Sen. Joe Sweeden, D-Pawhuska, said tuition increases were not automatic when lawmakers had control, however, and when citizens and students seemed to rise up more in opposition to raising the cost of going to college.