The cost for an incoming freshman to attend Fairfield University next year will be the same as the cost of a fully loaded 2003 BMW 325i sedan with leather seats, on-board navigation system and rain-sensing windshield wipers.
Fairfield continues its trend of increasing tuition as the Board of Trustees passed the budget for the 2004 fiscal year. Tuition will increase 5.9 percent.
“I really wish that the students can see specifically where this extra money we are going to end up paying will be going,” said Brian Wielk, ’06. “Of course everything needs to be updated all the time, but I wish we could see specifics and not generalizations.”
This year, tuition for undergraduate students was $1,550 less than it will cost next year.
However, the incoming class of 2007 will be paying more for tuition as Fairfield will implement a two-tiered tuition for 2004. The incoming freshmen will pay $26,100 as opposed to $25,650 for continuing students.
“We could have added a little bit more to each class, but we decided to limit the increase to the students already reaping the benefits of the school and reallocated them to start the program all over again with a higher base tuition,” said Bill Lucas, Vice President of Finance and the school’s treasurer.
“I think that it shows that Fairfield has higher expectations of making money than being a university,” said Wielk. “I would have been very unhappy if I heard that I would be paying more than everyone else if they did that this year.”
For schools in the MAAC, the overall tuition increase for this year is 6.8 percent. Fairfield’s tuition has increased a total of 27.4 percent over the past five years.
“You can argue whether or not that is good or bad,” Lucas said, “but what it really shows is a continual attempt to move forward. It is an attempt to show that enhancement, programs and cost continue to go up. We wish it didn’t have to go this way, but it is just reality. Everyone is facing it: it’s not just unique to us.”
“You don’t see [tuition] going down because I don’t know how you would begin to retract,” Lucas added. “I don’t know how you would say we’re not going to do as well this year or we’re not going to provide the programs that we currently provide.”
At a private institution such as Fairfield, almost 90 percent of the budget is comprised of tuition and fees, university sponsored financial aid and auxiliary services, which include room and board.
Officials blamed the increase on several factors. Most importantly there was an increase of 22 percent in medical premiums for employees. Another problem is inflation: a problem which University President Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. says is inevitable each year.
“Think of it like a quart of milk,” Kelley said. “The quart of milk that you bought last year costs five cents more this year, but it is still the same milk. And it’s not necessarily better. In parts of our budget, inflation proves to be dramatic, like medical coverage.”
In the Campus Center last Thursday, Kelley and Lucas, along with Vice President of Student Services, William Schimpf, listened to the questions that students had about the budget. Some questions that arose included whether tuition will ever go down and if the school should have done so many renovations, such as the library, Campus Center and Bannow, so quickly.
“This is the operating budget for the university,” said Schimpf. “All major enhancements over the past years were all built with gifts to the university. You all pay to maintain and operate these facilities.”
“You are benefiting from things that other people have given to the school, and when you graduate, we will be talking to you for future gifts to the school,” Schimpf added. “The chance that the operating cost of the university going down is not very significant.”
Another major cause in the increase of tuition is the projected increase of $600,000 to be allocated for food service on campus.
“We are now about where we want to be in terms of the quality of the food and the variety of the food,” Schimpf said.
“If the school thinks they can justify raising tuition by this much and claim that a lot of it is to improve the food services here on campus, then they are not fooling anyone,” said Sean Klock, ’04. “Barone food still has the famous quality of causing digestive failure among the student body.”
“As a corporation, Sodexho was losing money on this account,” Schimpf said. “As we moved into the stages of figuring out the cost of the operation, the loss that they were experiencing became our loss… and now it is our turn to allocate money to them.”
Other reasons for the increase, according to Lucas, included the always present student financial aid, which will amount to $1.8 million for next year, the upgrade of the university cable system, the upgraded One-Card system and other upgrades in technology on campus.
“Education is a special area,” Kelley said. “If your not getting better you never stay stable. You are either improving or falling back. We want to make this place better each year across the board. That includes our faculty, our programs, student services and facilities.”
“Many of your parents make sacrifices to send you here, and we are conscious of that in trying to put together this budget, yet we always do this regretfully but necessarily if your going to cover inflation and improvement,” Kelley said. “But I think the parents understand because out of all the letters that I send out every year I get about two or three letters in response to it. They appreciate the quality of the education here and understand that things cost more each year, unfortunately.”
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