2008 Woodie Awards
Board approves annual tuition hike
James Spung, Managing Editor
Issue date: 2/27/07
Last Updated: 8/9/07
Student expenses such as tuition and other mandatory fees are set to increase -- again.
An increase of 5.8 percent in student expenses, which includes tuition, mandatory fees, a standard room fee and an Unlimited A meal plan, was approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees last month.
The increase will bring tuition up to $25,382 per year, or $1,538 more than last year. Room and board fees have increased by $264.
A few different factors are driving the increase in student expenses, said Dale Soden, executive assistant to the president.
"One is student demand for increased quality," Soden said. "We want to tell students that their experience here will be as good, and we'd like to think better, than other schools."
Mandatory fees included as overall student expenses include an ASWC fee of $180, an $80 basic insurance fee and a student center fee of $50 that is used for maintenance, improvement and repairs to the Hixson Union Building.
With an endowment of around $70 million and an operating budget of roughly $40 million, Whitworth is what Soden called a tuition-dependent college.
"Eighty to 90 percent of what we're spending to run the place comes from tuition," Soden said. "If we can grow the endowment, we can become less dependent on tuition."
Soden was clear that the endowment is not built on student expenses.
Soden added that other factors contributing to the increase in tuition include "deferred maintenance," or the depreciation of buildings on campus and the college's continuing effort to improve faculty compensation.
The administration compares its faculty salaries to those at 30 other regional and national institutions. Whitworth began as one of the lowest colleges on the list in the early 1990s, but in the interest of recruiting and maintaining faculty, the administration is trying to increase faculty salaries by at least 2 percent above inflation every year, Soden said.
An increase of 5.8 percent in student expenses, which includes tuition, mandatory fees, a standard room fee and an Unlimited A meal plan, was approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees last month.
The increase will bring tuition up to $25,382 per year, or $1,538 more than last year. Room and board fees have increased by $264.
A few different factors are driving the increase in student expenses, said Dale Soden, executive assistant to the president.
"One is student demand for increased quality," Soden said. "We want to tell students that their experience here will be as good, and we'd like to think better, than other schools."
Mandatory fees included as overall student expenses include an ASWC fee of $180, an $80 basic insurance fee and a student center fee of $50 that is used for maintenance, improvement and repairs to the Hixson Union Building.
With an endowment of around $70 million and an operating budget of roughly $40 million, Whitworth is what Soden called a tuition-dependent college.
"Eighty to 90 percent of what we're spending to run the place comes from tuition," Soden said. "If we can grow the endowment, we can become less dependent on tuition."
Soden was clear that the endowment is not built on student expenses.
Soden added that other factors contributing to the increase in tuition include "deferred maintenance," or the depreciation of buildings on campus and the college's continuing effort to improve faculty compensation.
The administration compares its faculty salaries to those at 30 other regional and national institutions. Whitworth began as one of the lowest colleges on the list in the early 1990s, but in the interest of recruiting and maintaining faculty, the administration is trying to increase faculty salaries by at least 2 percent above inflation every year, Soden said.
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