Cameron University’s new budget focusing on students

Cameron University’s budget for the new academic year continues to focus attention on its primary asset: students.

Oklahoma State Regent for Higher Education approved the 2023-2024 budget last week, allowing Cameron to place its budget and plans for tuition, meal and housing increases into place, said Cameron President John McArthur. While expenditures are projected to be $3.336 million less, the budget still will focus on students via new programs and services.

One plan will continue Cameron’s goal of expanding operations at the Student Enrichment Center, the area designed to identify and provide solutions to problems that could take a student out of the classroom and off campus for good. McArthur said this year’s focus is educational, financial and societal challenges that may affect students.

The focus already is working, McArthur said, explaining an analysis shows a 10 percent increase in the likelihood that students helped by the center will stay in college.

“We’re expanding,” he said, adding new programs will include things such as career counseling and health care services.

The university also will increase scholarships and tuition waivers by $470,000 in the new academic year. Student help has always been important for the campus and its students, and McArthur said Cameron continues to expand that funding as much as possible. Coupled with decreases in fees, the result is an increase in student help, something administrators promised student government it would achieve.

The state is helping, McArthur said, citing Oklahoma’s Inspired To Teach incentive program that provides a $1,000 annual scholarship to students who major in teaching, then $4,000 a year for five years after they graduate and enter the teaching profession, as long as they teach in Oklahoma. The university also wants to focus attention on health care professions — another high-demand area — and is working with those who want Cameron to focus more degree work on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas needed by high-tech industries, including defense contractors in Lawton’s FISTA Innovation Park.

McArthur said Cameron is in discussions with FISTA tenants, who cite a need for employees trained in areas such as engineering and cyber security. In turn, those tenants have said they will provide internships for Cameron students majoring in those fields.

“A prolonged job interview,” McArthur said of the program that could link students to jobs before they graduate.

Students also will see higher tuition, fee, meal and housing costs, reflecting increasing costs of operations.

Campus officials said in June that tuition and mandatory fees would increase by $6.50 per credit hour (2.9 percent) while graduate tuition and mandatory fees will increase by $7 (2.7 percent). McArthur said the trade off is Cameron is moving closer to its goal of a single rate for all course work, in-person or digital.

“We are a year away from that,” he estimated.

That’s important because of the number of students taking online courses or attending classes via Zoom, compared to traditional in-person settings. McArthur said about half of Cameron’s courses are taken in-person, but one-third online and one-sixth via Zoom or other technology-enabled settings. Those numbers, stable for two years, illustrates the fact that some students are blending traditional and digital settings.

While 85 percent of Cameron’s students live within 60 miles of campus, online options give those students more versatility in fitting their course work into their daily lives. And, that means students don’t necessarily have to book course back-to-back, McArthur said.