Tuition set to rise by 6.5% next year

By Koren Temple

Tuition rates for next year are expected to rise $1,764 as a result of increased budget costs, university finance officials reported during a Feb. 24 student senate meeting.

The projected tuition for next year of $28,899 is a 6.5 percent rise from this year's rate, and comes at a time when increased insurance costs, demands for higher faculty salaries and collegiate competition weigh heavily in the market.

Overall, tuition and fees constitute 75 percent of the university's revenue, making Santa Clara, like other private universities, "tuition dependent."

"The biggest costs factors have to deal with salaries and benefits. Benefits have been rising over the last few years at a clip of over 12 percent in some areas," Budget Director Dennis Roberts said.

Altogether, the university will spend $135.7 million on salaries compared to $129 million last year. Benefits alone will cost the university $34.2 million. Both salaries and benefits make up 52 percent of the university's expenses.

Another major cost factor cited during the senate meeting by Harry Fong, associate vice president of finance, was the increased insurance costs which rose from an average of $700,000 to over $1 million after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"Insurance has gone up substantially over the past few years," Roberts said. "We experienced essentially 50 percent increases in a very short period of time."

The university will spend $2.2 million more on its operating expenses this year, which include taxes, insurance and other costs such as student services.

To curb rising insurance prices, Roberts said the university entered into a consortium with other Jesuit institutions such as the University of San Francisco and Loyola Marymount University.

"Roberts said the budget office confers heavily with the vice-provost for enrollment management and his staff to evaluate the potential impacts to our students.

"As we increase tuition, we increase financial aid so that we don't reduce access for students," he said.

Last year, the university increased its financial aid by 13 percent. This coming year, the university will only increase its aid by 4 percent.

Despite the university's stance to increase financial aid, students at the senate meeting expressed concerns over a growing tuition. Some asked if tuition would rise to $60,000 in the next 20 years.

Senior English and communication major Lance Dwyer doesn't think the university is doing enough to keep tuition from going up.

"I'm graduating this year, luckily. At least when it gets really crazy I will be gone," he said.

Dwyer says Santa Clara isn't an elite-enough school to charge as much as Stanford, whose tuition is only $2,712 more.

Roberts says, however, that schools with larger endowments don't have to rely so much on tuition revenue. Stanford's endowment is $8.6 billion, whereas Santa Clara's is $500 million.

Overall, the university is looking to increase private gifts, strengthen financial planning throughout the university, and to enhance the quality of the institution by adding new faculty.

"That's one of the things we try to do when we say we're trying to link our budget to our strategic plan," Roberts said. "And our strategic plan is to be one of the best Catholic universities."

* Contact Koren Temple at (408) 551-4546 or ktemple@scu.edu.