Tuition Increases are Reaching the Tipping Point

, by Frank Fineis, Class of 2013

Despite the dulling of our minds thanks to the constantly breaking news cycle, I hope that we can remember that, only a few short weeks ago, the administration quietly decided to raise tuition another 4.5%, on top of the 3.8% increase from last year. Next year, Wesleyan will cost just about $60,000 for upperclassmen and $58,000 for underclassmen, up nearly $7,000 from when I first arrived here in 2009. Many problems arise with this casual increase in tuition, the first of which is that the raise is entirely unsustainable.

At a school that supposedly emphasizes “sustainability,” it amazes me that our bureaucrats would think a 4.5% tuition increase would work, as if it were only natural that a college’s tuition increases at twice the rate of national inflation. President Roth himself has acknowledged that the annual increase is not sustainable for the years to come; I would argue that the cost has already reached a tipping point.

Middle class students and their families bear the brunt of this increase, as they will continue to qualify for little aid from the FAFSA and Wesleyan’s Office of Financial Aid, yet are expected to pay the additional tuition. These students will probably accept offers to schools that both cost less and offer merit scholarships. From numerous educational standpoints, Wesleyan is hardly unique. Lower income students stand to lose as well. Financial aid doesn’t always increase more than tuition. Students should not be made to feel liable for Wesleyan’s out-of-control tuition increases.

Wesleyan itself also suffers under increased tuition. The income gap between students will widen. The atmosphere will continue to take on the stench of a post-prep school institution if the administration cannot control Wesleyan’s cost. The fact that Wesleyan is among the top ten most expensive schools in the country is simply embarrassing. I come from Illinois, where most of my friends attend school in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana. A year of school for them costs less than $40,000; that’s still an obscene amount of money, but students are offered merit scholarships.

Another valid argument against $60,000 a year is that the more this school costs, the more each student is entitled to in terms of an overall college experience. The more you pay, the more you’re supposed to get, or at least that’s how the tradition goes. That means that when the school costs more than it did in previous years, there should be more seats in popular classes and fewer forced triples, which is exactly the opposite of what we see happening. The class of 2015 has over 800 students, and many will have to live in the Butts as sophomores next year. Thus, Wesleyan parents are paying more for their children’s college experiences while students are getting less, as many of you probably discovered during GRS or pre-registration.

What can we ask from the administration, from the trustees, and from President Roth? Well, asking for a reduction in the tuition or in room-and-board or in any other part of Wesleyan’s bill would lead to an automatic threat to our need-blind policy. International students lost need-blind admissions in 2010—the school is serious about using need-blind as their first hostage. What we should be asking for instead is either a freeze on tuition increases for the next two to three years, or a lock-in system for tuition whereby students pay the same tuition over the course of their four years here at Wesleyan. All I ask is that we, the students, do not forget about this tuition increase or the fact that our school costs more than all but one or two schools in the country. Keep the chalking alive, and hopefully some kind of fruitful protest will result from our massive discontent with $60,000 a year.

18 Comments

    • Old Grad

      Bingo! Wesleyan has to increase the number of fee paying students to afford its spending habits and poor financial stewardship over the years.

      • alum

        You have to admit, Wesleyan IS trying, on the investment side of things anyway, to get its financial house in order. More donations are put into the endowment than to the Annual Fund compared to years past, the next capital campaign is going to dump over $200 million into the endowment, mostly for financial aid, and the endowment spending rate is dropping.

        It’s really quite unfortunate that Wesleyan spent all of its wealth in the 70’s, still had as much money as Williams/Amherst in 1980, and then didn’t fundraise at all in the 80’s and early 90’s and missed out on the stock market run up then. This problem (high tuition, lack of good financial aid) would mostly be solved (at least in the sense of comparisons to “peer” schools) if the Wesleyan endowment was 3-4x times what it currently is.

        Anyone know any charitable billionaires?

      • alum

        The same Rutgers that paid Snooki $32,000 to speak and has an athletics program operating millions of dollars in the red? If I was a Rutgers alum, I would be disappointed to know that $18 million a year comes out of the general school fund to keep the athletics program solvent, plus $102 million spent on a stadium expansion, despite attendance actually falling. It’s a public school. Of course tuition will be lower than a private liberal arts college. Rutgers offers a good education, but it’s apples and oranges.

        Wesleyan actually spends a larger % of its budget on academics and a smaller % on “suport services” than its peers.

        What do you propose to cut? Where do you shrink the budget? Wesleyan spends 1/5 on landscaping compared to peers, has $46 million in deferred maintenance, is on the low end for professor salaries. I can keep going. Wesleyan is doing all it can to keep up with the other top liberal arts colleges, despite having a hell of a lot less money. Would you rather tuition be frozen and Wes be more like Skidmore/Bard/Union or would you rather see Wes attracting the best students and faculty, like Vassar, Haverford, and Amherst?

      • '05

        I see no real compelling reason for Wesleyan to keep up with the top liberal arts schools. It makes no difference to the students. The education will be more or less the same and Wesleyan kids will struggle to get good jobs regardless of whether it’s #11 or #25 in the rankings.

      • alum '10

        That’s a slippery slope. Before you know it, we’re a peer of Albertus Magnus. Do you really want that? Every school tries to get the strongest students it can, and Wes should be no different.

    • '05

      Cut the career service office in half, in particular those staff members devoted to advising students about graduate schools. All that information is available online.

  3. Old Grad

    This is a considerable failure by administration, trustees and faculty. (I say faculty because they are the single most powerful constituency preventing capping or reduction of costs.)

    After 4 years increase at a 4.5% rate, fees increase to $71,551. After 10 years the cost is over $93,000. After 25 years (about the time at which current students’ children might be coming to Wesleyan) the cost would exceed $180,000.

    The rate of increase at double inflation has been going on for decades.

    All that time college administrations have been convinced that someone will step in to support their spending. So far they have been right. Student protests will create some attention, but any effective protest will have to come from alumni, foundations and taxpayers, who one way or another have financed these increases over time.

    • '05

      Pretty sure a big chunk of alumni have already given up on Wesleyan as it is currently structured. I think Wesleyan should shrink to about 25% of the size it is now and focus exclusively on training future PhD scholars. Maybe we would need to shut down the school entirely and force it into bankruptcy and then re-open it under some other name in order to get rid of the tenured fat. Fire about 50% of tenured and non-tenured faculty and fire 75% of existing staff. Remake the school for fewer than 200 student per class.

      • 2013

        Hahahaha are you shitting me? That would in no way bear resemblance to anything Wesleyan ever was. Our school was about 800 students strong in the ’50s and ’60s, but it was also all-male and it certainly wasn’t training PhD scholars.

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