Tuition increase announced

In a letter to students and families this past week, President Timothy Lannon, S.J., announced the expected cost of attendance increases for the 2010-2011 academic year at Saint Joseph's University. In 2010-2011, tuition and fees will amount to $35,080.

Next year's tuition and fees represent a $1,140 increase from the 2009-2010 rate. The average for on-campus housing is $8,130 and next year's meal plan will cost $4,425. Overall, these costs represent a 3.27 percent increase over this year's rates.

In his letter to parents and students, Lannon said that the 3.27 percent represented the lowest increase in 36 years.

According to Provost Brice Wachterhauser, Ph.D., a tough economy meant that this year's approved tuition increase came with challenges.

"We're very mindful that it's become more challenging for families to afford a St. Joe's education and for that reason we wanted to be sure, particularly in these circumstances, that the tuition increase was very modest," Wachterhauser said. "On the other hand, the university has ongoing expenses that it has to meet and certain…principles of fiscal responsibility that we follow. We knew we couldn't have a zero percent tuition increase."

Undergraduate students have seen their share of tuition increases in the last four years. In 2007, the Board of Trustees approved a 6.1 percent tuition increase. Tuition and fees for 2008-2009 marked a 6.0 percent increase. Last year's 3.76 percent increase brought tuition and fees to a total of $33,940.

Louis J. Mayer, vice president for finance at Saint Joseph's University, said that determining tuition increases is a "very delicate balancing act." According to Mayer, university administrators consider a number of factors when determining what increase they will propose to the Board of Trustees each spring.

Primary among these concerns is funding the university's operating budget. According to Mayer, St. Joe's is "heavily tuition dependent," with revenue making up approximately 75 to 80 percent of the university's total revenues. Tuition dollars go toward increasing operating costs like payroll and capital expenses, like technology improvements, renovations, and landscaping.

"In addition to considering what our cost increases are and what our tuition increase rate was going to be, we also look at where we're positioned in the marketplace," Mayer said.

Among those competitors are Villanova University, Fairfield University, LaSalle University, and state-related institutions like the University of Delaware, Temple University, and Penn State.

"Our feeling is that we're competitive," Mayer said. "However, we have to be cognizant of the growing competition from the prominent regional state-related institutions, such as Delaware, Penn State, and Temple. So we're kind of keeping an eye on their rates, as well as the rates of the other privates that we compete with."

While the importance of decisions made by prospective students is often in the minds of university officials, current students are also impacted by a growing cost of attendance at St. Joe's.

Kimberly Allen-Stuck, Ph.D., director of student success, has overseen the exit process for students at Saint Joseph's since July 2008. Allen-Stuck has developed a game for students to "play" in which they identify and weigh factors involved in their decision to leave St. Joe's. Students are given a number of chips and distribute them in a variety of categories—financial, social, safety, etc.—depending on what influenced them most.

"Very rarely does a student [put all their chips on one category]. Usually it's a whole combination of things, and then we talk about it," Allen-Stuck said.

According to Allen-Stuck, of the freshman who left in the summer of 2009, financial concerns comprised 24 percent of the total reasons why students left the institution.

"I would say financial almost always gets at least one chip," Allen-Stuck said. "It's expensive to go here, so it factors in. Any time you're making a decision that's such a big investment, I think people think about it."

While an increasingly steep price tag for college education is not unique to St. Joe's, the gap that emerges for many students between their tuition costs for freshman year and the price tag for their final years at the university is often significant.

"I'm surprised how people don't factor that in," said Allen-Stuck. "Because the gap [appears because] you got a $15,000 scholarship a year, and the first year tuition is $30,000, let's say. You still get $15,000 and now it's $32,000, and then it's $34,000, and so that is a concern."

Some universities and colleges in the U.S. have responded to growing concerns over the increasing cost of higher education by offering "locked-in" rates for incoming students. The University of Texas at Dallas, Central Michigan University, and, more locally, Immaculata University have all offered locked-in tuition rates for undergraduate students.

Mayer said that St. Joe's had considered the fixed-tuition option for students, but thought that the perceived benefits of such a measure were outweighed by cons.

"The concern that we have about that pricing model is that, in our financial view…we're concerned that that might put undue pressure on subsequent classes," Mayer said. "Because if we bring a class in and say, ‘We're going to hold your tuition frozen for four years,' you still have increasing operating expenses…. And that would likely force us to have to raise the tuition rate for the subsequent class by an above average level… We feel that that would be more harmful than it would be beneficial to the cohorts that are moving through at no price increase."

While administrators state that tuition increases are a necessary part of the university's operating expenditures, it isn't an easy process, according to Allen-Stuck.