At long last, the burdensome tuition hike for in-state students at the University has ceased. With steady tuition increases of 71 percent at the Urbana and Chicago campuses over the past decade, it is about time. Yes, believe it or not, on Jan. 15, the Board of Trustees froze tuition rates for in-state students, making this the first time in 20 years when tuition rates will not increase.

According to The Daily Illini, for the 2015-2016 school year, the base tuition will remain at $12,036 a year at the Urbana campus, but student fees and room and board costs will increase slightly. In addition, while the tuition rates for in-state students will not increase, the tuition for out-of-state students will increase by 2 percent.

In previous years, the University has seen annual tuition increases of 1.7 percent. And while these rates are locked for first-year students’ full four years (meaning what students pay beginning their freshman year remains steady throughout the course of their time at the University), we are pleased to see a momentary moratorium on annual tuition hikes — especially when bringing in Illinois students has proved problematic for the University.

Attracting in-state students has been a clear issue for the University in recent years, with the University losing Illinois students to schools like Iowa and Mizzou. We have expressed our concern and discontent with the lack of in-state students in previous editorials by acknowledging the importance and necessity of attracting and admitting in-state students and making their time at the University more affordable.

As we noted, the University is a public school funded in part by Illinois taxpayers and the University ought to make it a priority to address the needs and interests of Illinois citizens — and addressing high tuition and actually doing something about it is a great first step, but should certainly not be the only step.

We also previously noted that our school had one of the highest undergraduate resident tuition rates in the Big Ten for 2013-2014 and also took the prize for eighth most expensive tuition rate for in-state students among all public 4-year schools in the United States.

These aren’t rankings we care to place highly on, and if this doesn’t give a good indication for why this tuition freeze is beneficial and necessary, we don’t know what will.

Also reported in The Daily Illini, University Vice President Christophe Pierre stated that the tuition freeze helps the University remain competitive among its peers as well as fulfill its mission to provide affordable, quality education. And after years of students losing money from their pockets and the University losing Illinois students to other schools, we sure hope that’s the case.