Tuition increase demands explanation by university
by Natalie Gould, Reporter
By now you should have received a letter in your mailboxes stating the increase in tuition by about $2,000 for the coming year. It's hard to imagine that anyone would be thrilled to see that the tuition was increasing once again. National inflation rose about 3 percent, so how does the school justify raising tuition 5.7 percent? Shouldn't the school give an explanation as to where this extra money will be headed?
Instead of sending a vague letter announcing tuition increase leaving the student body perplexed, the school should take the liberty upon themselves to make a better effort to inform the students about where their hard earned money is going. Students do have a right to know just where this money will be used. The university population has many speculations as to where this money is going to be spent, and for the most part, it is very mistaken.
Jim Foster, interim provost, signed the letters and in talking to him, he gave a very good explanation as to where the extra money is going. Most of the student body may speculate that this money is going toward the school's vision or a large increase in faculty and staff salary, when in fact, it is much more simple than that.
The money is actually headed toward things such as hiring new faculty members, roof repairs, technology upgrades, equipment needs, electricity, carpeting, increase in costs for Bon Appetit, covering the raising prices of travel, and other repair or price increase needs. A small part of the extra money will be put into an endowment, and the faculty and staff salary is only increasing 1.5 percent, which is just half of the national inflation of 3 percent. None of this money will be put into further development of the new Student Union Building or any other buildings in the forecast of George Fox. The development department raises its own money and is largely dependent upon donors, completely separate from the tuition students pay each year.
The national trend of college tuition is perpetually increasing each year. Last year, Fox had a tuition increase, but it was smaller than the one about to take place. Foster says that for the past few years it has consisted of minor increases and it has come to a point where the university has needed to take a bit of a more drastic measure and raise tuition by a larger margin to cover the costs of the exponentially growing prices.
When asked if worried that this tuition increase would cause many students to reconsider returning next year, Foster said that yes, it was an issue the school worries about. They realize that even as it stands, a large amount of students are just scraping by to cover their tuition, and that this increase would cause many to have to relocate to a more financially friendly university. However, because of this, there will be more money put into financial aid for those who are caught in this dilemma. This does not mean everyone will be receiving more financial aid, but based on need, financial services will work to do all they can to help with this adjustment.
While it would be extremely helpful if the university would do some more explanation in the letters sent out to announce tuition increases, students should be careful before jumping to conclusions. Foster ended by saying, "There is never any extra money left over. All of this money is going toward being reinvested into the school to make it a more enjoyable and efficiently run place."