Tuition increases pick students’ pockets, but may not save school

by Dave Brody

Friday April 21, 2006

Students were informed over spring break that tuition prices are going to increase by six percent next year, but the actual economic condition of the school is still unknown to most of the student body. Next year, tuition will increase to $35,000. For students who also pay for room and board, the cost of attending Sarah Lawrence College will rise to $47,000. If the cost of tuition continues to increase by six percent per year, the cost of being a residential student at SLC will hit the $50,000 mark within the next three years. So what is the current economic state of the school, and why isn’t the administration talking to the student body about it?

I spoke with Dennis Cross, the Vice President for Finance and Planning of the college, who explained the economic state of the school. He informed me that at this moment, SLC has a deficit of $3.6 million. The projected deficit by the end of the year will be down to almost one million dollars, due to an increased amount of money that the school will have come May. The projected deficit for the end of next year will be slightly above $1.2 million.
“I’m not saying there is going to be deficits every year going forward, but there definitely is a lot of pressure,” said Cross.

While tuition increases are not that unusual for colleges, there are larger problems which are not being addressed by the school. Most colleges increase their tuition by a few percentages each year due to inflation and various expenses, but those colleges also have larger endowments than Sarah Lawrence; ours is only $60 million. SLC’s rate of spending of our endowment is also at six percent, while most schools only spend around four and a half to five percent.

The administration has done a good job making sure different areas of the school do not receive budget cuts. The school is even going to increase the percentage of financial aid given away next year because of the increases in tuition. However, next year the number of accepted students will decrease, so with smaller class sizes the already apparent financial problems of the school are going to be increasingly felt by each student. The small class sizes are obviously a critical part of the school’s philosophy, but many fear that the school’s price tag is growing so large that it will start to scare students away.

So what is the school planning to do to combat these problems? The administration has told the student body virtually nothing about their strategies for the larger problems surrounding how this institution is designed. According to Cross, the school’s plans to tackle the financial problems are to increase the tuition, build up the endowment and control costs. However, this is not a sufficient response, and the school needs to provide more of an answer to the student body.

The school is already fighting Landmark College to become the most expensive in the country. The tuition is already very high and cannot increase at a rate of six percent each year. The endowment is extremely small and the spending rate is higher than that of most schools. What options are left?
This begs questions regarding the basic tenets of an SLC education. At this rate, it will soon be even harder for students to afford this school. Is SLC going to become a college that exclusively caters to wealthy applicants? Or will it have to compromise its basic philosophies of small classes and one-on-one time with professors in order to make ends meet?

The administration has left the student body in the dark, and it is time we get some answers because students are taking on massive loans to pay for their Sarah Lawrence education. They have a right to know where their money is going and how it is being spent. This school values dialogue, with meetings and coalitions in place to foster discussion between students and the administration. Why is it then that there is no discussion about this? The administration needs to talk to the student body about these problems so that we can be informed. This is our education, and since we are going bankrupt paying for it we are entitled to have a say in the matter.