Washington College is a small liberal arts school located in Chestertown, Maryland. The school boasts of many things, but one of its most notable recent accomplishments is President Sheila Bair's freeze on tuition costs for enrolled students.
While this is excellent news for the student body of Washington College, it is also not as incredible as it sounds. Yes, tuition has frozen at $42,844 annually; however, this does not include student fees, which bring annual tuition for 2015-2016 up to $54,666 annually. So, what does the bulk of these student fees consist of? Room and board.
That's right. For just nine months out of the year, students are being charged roughly $12,000 to exist on campus. Although this number is astonishingly high, it is not too far off from the national average of $11,516 per year.
But the question remains: where does our approximate $12,000 payment go?
So far in the 2016-2017 school year, Washington College has announced several extreme cutbacks. The first of these resides within the Residence Life department.
Students living in suite style dormitories no longer have housekeeping cleaning the buildings regularly. While I am not opposed to having to clean my own living space, it is clearly a move to cut costs, despite the school's consistent hikes in housing costs every single year. Furthermore, dormitories that are occupied by freshmen cost approximately $2,000 less annually than the suite style upperclassmen housing, yet are cleaned daily by housekeeping staff.
Washington College claims that these changes are being made to create a more independent student and to "prepare" the student body for adult life. While students understand the necessity of being able to function as an adult, the difference in cost does not go without severe scrutiny amongst the student body.
Further cutbacks have been prevalent in other departments at Washington College this year as well, namely the Dining Services. Check the Washington College Odyssey page for updated opinion pieces from students regarding these changes.
