Maddi O’Neill
Editor in Chief
The comprehensive fee to attend Wooster during the 2016-17 academic year has been raised to $57,900, a 4.1 percent increase from the 2015-16 comprehensive fee of $55,600, according to documentation on the College’s website and a letter recently sent to students’ parents.
The percent increase is considerably higher than the 2.8 percent tuition increase from the 2014-15 academic year to this academic year (2015-16).
Ellen Falduto, the College’s chief information and planning officer, provided an itemized list of what next year’s $57,900 bill will cover:
– Tuition : $46,430.00
– On-Campus Medical Service Fee: $260.00
– Student Activity Fee : $170.00
– Room (Double) : $5,330.00
– Meals : $5,710.00.
Director of Financial Aid Joe Winge said that while merit scholarships do not increase as tuition increases, “the financial aid office does reevaluate and adjust need-based financial aid every year. If a student with a merit scholarship only award in one year demonstrates financial need a following year, the student may receive need-based financial aid then.”
The 4.1 percent increase comes a year after the Sustainable Budget process, one goal of which was to “discipline our future published price increases,” Falduto said, quoting the “Sustainable Budget Planning” page of Wooster’s Scotblog (accessible at the bottom of the College’s website).
The increase is also significantly higher than inflation, or the Consumer Price Index, which went up only 0.9 percent in from 2015 to 2016, according to information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Falduto explained, however, that the College’s expenses go up at a much faster rate than the Consumer Price Index, which applies to average consumers and the everyday household products they purchase.
“Major drivers of costs for colleges include quite different goods and services than for individuals and families, such as a very highly educated workforce (faculty and professional staff), employee benefits (such as health insurance), state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation and equipment, library materials, technology applications and the maintenance of large, older facilities,” Falduto said.
Falduto said the budget for Fiscal Year 2017 accounts for inflation, as well as for allocations to cover a number of projects.
Falduto said these allocations will include investments in student life: “These include continuing a much-needed program of residence hall renovations, improving social spaces for students, new programming related to diversity on campus and, not least, providing additional resources for security, both personnel and equipment;” competitive salaries for faculty; and providing “equitable compensation for our staff.”
Falduto placed blame on services with rising costs that the College cannot control, including library journal subscriptions and software licenses, utilities and healthcare costs.
She also explained that the College hopes to implement recommendations made by the Strategic Planning and Priorities Advisory Committee (SPPAC) regarding staff salaries.
“Our hope is that we can begin to implement these recommendations and most importantly, through additional resource allocation, begin to ‘raise the floor’ of our salaries and wages for staff,” Falduto said.
Vice President for Finance and Business Dee McCormick did not reply to requests from the Voice for comment on the tuition increase.