Wayne State University undergraduate and graduate students who live in Michigan and outside the state will pay 4.5% more in tuition for 2024-25, but housing rates will not rise under a budget the WSU Board of Governors unanimously approved Wednesday.

The board approved the increased costs during its regular board meeting that later was dominated by students, alumni and community leaders who disapproved of how the university used police to clear students from an encampment set up in spring to pressure WSU to divest from its portfolio investments linked to Israel amid the Israel-Gaza war.

The tuition costs are part of WSU's $726 million general fund budget. The increases mean that a lower-division undergraduate student will pay an additional $562 in tuition for the fall and winter semesters, or $13,055 for the traditional academic year.

Wayne State officials said the average undergraduate tuition and fee increases over the past three years have been the lowest among Michigan’s 15 public universities and among the lowest for graduate students. They also noted that WSU's move last year to a flat-rate tuition price allows undergraduates to enroll each semester for between 12 and 18 credit hours in classes for the same price, which accelerates degree completion at a lower cost.

“The board’s decision to increase tuition was difficult and only agreed to after systematic analysis and detailed discussions,” board Chair Shirley Stancato said in a statement. “This increase will allow Wayne State to maintain the academic excellence that our students expect.”

WSU officials also said 59% of last fall’s incoming students paid no tuition to attend Wayne State and 75% of all undergraduates receive some financial aid to support their education.

“We have worked very hard at Wayne State to remove financial hurdles and provide multiple pathways for students to earn a degree because we know that access to top-tier higher education is the surest path to a meaningful career and positively impacting the trajectory of a family’s life,” said WSU President Kimberly Andrews Espy, who added that the university continues to provide "an excellent value."

During the meeting, a presentation was given on the university's strategic plan with a focus on financial statement sustainability that included WSU's $507.7 million endowment. Interim Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Bethany Gielczyk said the endowment annually distributes money to support universities activities but otherwise invests for the long term and has an investment committee that advises on investment-related decisions and develops investment policy. Wayne State has "no direct holdings in individual companies through stocks or bonds and in the cash portal," she said.

"Exposure to companies, and there's a specific definition, that have any part in manufacturing whole or part of something considered a controversial weapon is something between 1.25% and 1.5%," Gielczyk said. "We've been told we'd have to divest from 80% of our current investments in order to get out of those because you have to get out of the entire fund where those funds are in or where they own a portion of the company in those funds."

More than two dozen people signed up to speak before the board, with most admonishing the university for how it handled the encampment set up by WSU student activists in May. While the protest followed similar demonstration encampments that were started on campuses across the country and then cleared after the traditional academic year ended, Wayne State student activists said they started their encampment during the spring/summer semester to show the student movement was still alive in spite of fewer students on campus. More than a dozen Wayne State police officers in riot gear removed the students at the end of May, citing safety and legal issues.

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