Attending St. Lawrence University was very affordable for me. It was almost the cheapest school to attend based on overall costs after receiving a very generous financial package. The only school that was cheaper turned out to be my state school. I expected tuition to go up at some point, but not each year at the ridiculous rate the board and the president continued to approve.
The tuition my freshman year was about $60,000, and then it became $62,000 this year. The newly approved tuition for next year is about $64,000, or an official increase of 3.6 percent each year. Inflation was very low the past two years with 0.8 percent in 2014 and 0.7 percent in 2015 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, well below the rise in tuition. Why is the cost of an education going up way faster than all other products and services?
My university seems to be cheating me and the student body by demanding more and more money year after year, and the students are relatively powerless. When I choose a college, I expect to pay relatively the same costs every year. I know many students go into college barely being able to afford their original tuition. Currently, if costs go up at the same rate again for my senior year, I will have paid about an extra $12,000 more than expected.
For many, that is extra student debt that will take most of their lives to pay off. $12,000 is more than a typical car loan, and my university casually expects everyone is willing to give up the extra money. The University was not unequivocally clear in my original financial package that tuition would be going up so much every year. When the board raises tuition by such a significant amount, it seems like the message to the students is “pay up or get out.”
The University President and Board of Trustees are in no way greedy and money-crazed leaders, especially since their salaries are weakly connected with tuition hikes. St. Lawrence University’s President Fox stated in his press release, “With our utmost admiration for the extraordinary financial commitment and sacrifice made by our St. Lawrence families, we pledge our best effort to enhance our academic programs help prepare our students for lives and careers that are fulfilling.”
The current academic program costs should not have gone up more than inflation, so increasing tuition significantly means that the University is trying to add and buy more. I hope I am not paying $2,000 dollars a year extra just for some “admiration.” The real reason for colleges like St. Lawrence consistently raising their tuition way above inflation is due to the competition of prestige.
Every school wants to attract the best students and faculty to their institution. A college competes with other schools by making all their facilities state of the art with a variety of well-funded programs. Recently, my school has added wonderful facilities like the Johnson Hall of Science, the Winston Sullivan Student Center, and the Kirk Douglas Dormitory. Each facility is awe inspiring and provides incredible service to the student body, but when does the “prestige race” between colleges come to an end?
In my opinion, the only thing stopping the board from raising tuition by $10,000 is knowing that students will transfer, but $2,000 a year is just at the point where it does not outweigh the social costs of a student transferring from a school that they are truly connected with. Losing connections with friends and faculty members comes at an implicit cost. I have grown so fond of my school that I cannot imagine transferring.
The system could be set up to fail for students financially already. Having the Board of Trustees be mainly alumni could be an ultimately negative aspect for the student. Passionate and dedicated alumni want whats best for their university by trying to get the best facilities and programs in order to bring more prestige and pride to their alma mater. How much they raise tuition does not affect them anymore.
They believe that getting the best possible facilities and programs will automatically be best for the students. I digress to say that students want a degree and a good educational experience, yet we all do not expect to have the student experience continue to improve significantly every year if that means taking on unexpected lifelong and financially crippling debt.
The next time that my University Board of Trustees meets, I hope they really think through the consequences of raising tuition again. If that means cutting certain programs, staff, or forgoing to new facility project, then tough sacrifices should be made. I’m not asking for free college, just a more affordable and consistently priced education. There should be a more grandfathered tuition system for current students.
