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The four-campus University of Missouri system has “conceptually agreed to decoupling” its St. Louis and Columbia campuses, which would allow tuition and fees to differ between them. The premise is that the Columbia campus has larger and arguably better facilities.

“Currently the University of Missouri policy is to have the same basic undergraduate tuition for all campuses,” according to the Budget and Planning Committee’s report released in early November.

Senior Kyle Kersting, a finance major and chair of the Student Senate, spoke about a report given by Professor L. Douglas Smith of the College of Business. The report explained that tuition coupling is necessary because the “perceived relative quality of an UMSL education may be affected if it raises nominal tuition by a smaller amount than other UM campuses.” Kersting said that he feels coupling is the university’s attempt to avoid the perception that the four campuses of the UM system differ in the education with which they provide their students.

Kersting expressed that while students at UM-Columbia and UM-St. Louis currently pay comparable rates and receive comparable educational experiences, UM-Columbia “offers far superior recreational and dining facilities, as well as a thriving athletics program.”

“All of [the UM campuses] have the potential to offer a good education, but this does not account for the college experience that accompanies that education.” Kersting said. “In essence I feel it is fair for UM-St. Louis students to question whether or not they should pay the same rate as the other UM campuses.”

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