Marshall’s Board of Governors has approved an expansion to the radius which allows a student to receive metro tuition rates. The new expansion qualifies any county within a 100-mile radius of Marshall’s main campus, which includes many counties in Ohio and Kentucky which previously would have been considered out-of-state.

Metro tuition falls somewhere in between the cost of in-state and out-of-state tuition, and previously included the Ohio counties of Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike and Scioto as well as the Kentucky counties of Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Floyd, Greenup, Johnson, Lawrence, Martin and Pike.

The new expansion is planned to go into effect for the Fall 2023 semester and the new counties that are eligible in Ohio include Adams, Athens, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, Fairfield, Fayette, Highland, Hocking, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Ross, Vinton and Washington.

The Kentucky counties now eligible are Bath, Bourbon, Bracken, Breathitt, Clark, Clay, Estill, Fleming, Harrison, Knott, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Magoffin, Mason, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Owsley, Pendleton, Perry, Powell, Robertson, Rowan and Wolfe.

The university plans to begin outreach to the new counties over the coming months to attract students from these areas.

Other actions from the board meeting included reducing the requirements for the Employee Tuition Assistance Benefit for Dependent Children so that employees only have to work at the university for 180 days to be eligible rather than the previous 1-year requirement as well as revising an academic affairs policy that increases the expectations placed upon graduate students for academic dishonesty.

The University’s athletic director also reported that the athletic department is continuing with plans to sell beer in various areas including the Cam Henderson Center, the new planned baseball stadium, as well as the Dot Hicks Field. A new program designed to help manage the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) of student-athletes is also being implemented by the athletic department.

Two new members also joined the BOG during the meeting, including Student Government Association President Bella Griffiths and James C. “Jim” Smith, former CEO of Thomson Reuters, and graduate of Marshall.

The new members were supposed to be sworn in during the meeting, but an emergency from the presiding justice resulted in this being pushed back to the next meeting.