ORONO, Maine — In-state students at the University of Maine are applauding the system's board of trustees for freezing tuition for the fourth year in a row.
The board finalized the tuition freeze with a unanimous vote at its Monday meeting in Orono.
Conor Scott comes from a family of 10 kids. Scott and five of his siblings are currently enrolled at campuses in the University of Maine System. And his mom is headed back to college next year to finish the degree she put on hold when she gave birth to Scott's older brother. Scott remembers a big family talk about paying for college. He was 15 at the time.
It was "a very frank discussion about how were are not getting any help with education," he says. "And we should go to school. But, it's on us and figure it out."
Scott says he and his siblings have paid for college in different ways. Scott and his twin sister work as resident assistants. One of his brothers was in the U.S. Navy for five years. Another got grants and scholarships.
"Part of the reason that we all go to a school in the state of Maine is because we need to afford to go to school," he says. "And they're good schools. And we want to stay in state. Being able to rely on the fact that we're not going to be spending more money, year to year, allows us to stay in school."
And take on less student loan debt than some of their peers.
For one more year at least, Scott and his siblings will be able to count on paying essentially the same tuition they shell out right now. In a unanimous vote, the UMaine Systerm Board of Trusteees has approved a tuition freeze for in-state students the fourth year in a row.
Students attending the Orono campus pay roughly $10,600 annually. At the University of Southern Maine, tuition is a little over $8,500 a year. Nationally, tuition at public universities has been increasing 17 percent a year on average.