The St. Thomas Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that undergraduate tuition rates will rise 3.9 percent at the beginning of the summer, while graduate rates will rise an average of 3.4 percent.
Although the 3.6 percent increase is the second-lowest rate of increase in 21 years, Doug Hennes, vice president for university and government relations, said St. Thomas will likely see another increase under 4 percent this time next year.
“All of our programs – whether it’s the undergraduate program or the different graduate schools – they’re all really competitive markets. I think a combination of that plus being sensitive to the rising cost of an education and trying to hold down debt loads;
when you add those factors all together, it’s really compelled us in recent years to do everything that we can to keep the tuition increases as low as possible,” Hennes said.
Along with these changes, undergraduate tuition will have a comprehensive fee (includes room and board rates) of $47,525, a 3.6 percent increase from last year’s fee. This 3.6 percent increase is the same increase St. Thomas saw last year, and it marks the fifth consecutive year the fee increase has either declined or held even.
In addition to the tuition increase, if all enrollment requirements for the fall are met, there will be a 1.5 percent increase in overall budget for the faculty and staff salary pool.
Freshman John Hagen said he is frustrated with the rise in tuition.
“It makes me kind of angry. It makes me consider transferring because it is already pretty expensive. I don’t know if it’s worth it if it rises now and might even rise again in the future,” Hagen said. “I feel like we already spend unnecessary money.”
Sophomore Ellie Rowland said she struggles with not knowing how the money will be spent and believes more money should be going toward scholar programs and scholarship opportunities.
“I always have issues with this because I feel sometimes money is spent in ways that are unproductive for the school,” Rowland said. “I really like the STAR program, but I feel like they get a lot of the money that comes in, and it doesn’t really benefit a majority of the students.”
Considering tuition for me was around $32,000 when I started in 2006, this new price of $47,525 is an absolute JOKE! They simply increase tuition, because all the other colleges/universities are raising their tuitions, and because more expensive colleges seem more “elite” to potential future students, it puts more pressure on colleges/universities to keep raising tuition. And because students are all too willing to take out more and more loans, which apparently the St. Thomas board has absolutely no issue with, St. Thomas will still see a continuous flow of applicants, regardless of cost. Having sat it on board meetings my senior year at UST as Senior Class President, I can confirm the above as true. Amazing!