Chris Lisinski is reporting or State House News Service tuition at all University of Massachusetts campuses will increase this fall for the first time in three years The UMass Board of Directors voted 12 to 2 on April 13, to approve a package of tuition and fee hikes first proposed at a committee meeting last week. Two student trustees, Derek Houle of UMass Lowell and Narcisse Kunda of UMass Dartmouth, cast the only dissenting votes. Tens of thousands of in-state undergraduate students at Mass face a 2.5 percent tuition hike for the 2022-23 academic year, or between $346 and $395 more annually, as well as increases in room and board costs ranging from 1.9 to 3.9 percent. Out-of-state undergraduates are looking at similar tuition increases next year, as do all graduate students at the Amherst, Boston and Lowell campuses. UMass suspended annual tuition increases on its four non-medical campuses for each of the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. UMass President Marty Meehan estimated the tuition freeze resulted in about $32 million in foregone revenue. Meehan said seeking another tuition freeze would not be sustainable in the current economic climate. Officials argued that the average 2.5 percent tuition increase is significantly lower than the current inflation rate of 8.5 percent. Meehan said students will collectively share nearly $1 billion in financial aid from federal, state and UMass sources. Read more in The Berkshire Eagle.