As John Carroll University prepares for the 2010-2011 academic year, the University is annoucing a 4.6 percent increase of undergraduate tuition.
JCU’s undergraduate tuition will be set at $29,250 for the 2010-2011 school year, an increase of $1,310 from 2009-2010.
In addition to an increase in the undergraduate tuition, the room rate will go up by $220 and the board rate was increased by $200.
This tuition increase comes after one of the lowest increases of 2.8 percent was instituted last year.
According to Brian Williams, vice president for enrollment, the University made many cuts last year, totaling $4.5 million, in order to minimally increase the tuition for students. These cuts included staff and faculty health care cuts and voluntary layoffs, which will remain in place.
“Even with all that we have done, there have been significant declines in revenue and state aid for students. We take great care in ensuring we keep tuition low, and to not sacrifice the quality of the student experience. It is not something we enter into lightly,” said Williams.
The decline in revenue has several sources. In addition to reduced state and federal aid, the University had a small freshman class this past year. Since JCU is primarily a tuition driven institution, this impacted the University’s budget. Also, the University’s endowment suffered a blow from the economy, decreasing from $188 million to $110 million in 2009. The endowment has steadily recovered since then and is now at $155 million, according to Richard Mausser, vice president for finance and treasurer.
This increase in tuition is only one factor that will affect the budget this year. Additionally, the number of enrolled freshmen students is an important factor since net tuition is the primary source of the operating budget.
To this end, the University has set a base goal of 700 enrolled freshmen students for the next five years.
According to Williams, this base goal will help to stabilize enrollment and the budget at JCU.
Williams said that since he began at JCU in 2006, the freshmen enrollment has fluctuated from 661 to nearly 800 students.
“Enrollment has not been steady. The process has been very reactionary and driven by the budget,” said Williams in a meeting with the faculty Jan. 27.
In the past, the University’s budget directly affected the enrollment goal for the incoming freshman class. A bigger budget increased the pressure on achieving a higher freshman class enrollment.
The 700 freshman class goal is only a planning number and is not absolute. However, this goal will help the University to plan what is needed for upcoming semesters.
Mausser said this number helps the University to plan in terms of how many dormitory rooms are needed, how many professors are necessary and how many course sections are required, among other things.
According to Williams, “The enrollment goals impact our planning in student affairs, for faculty in course planning, and more. The conversations happening across campus are more focused on this wider scale. So rather than just focus on one year’s budget we are looking at what the next few years hold for JCU and planning now to lay a stronger foundation moving forward.”
It is still early in the budget planning process for this year and discussions are ongoing.
Mausser said that this year, budget discussions are “more participatory.”
Faculty Council Chair Paul Shick emphasized the need to include faculty in the decision making process.
“We emphasized the need for transparency in the process and for better communication than in previous years,,” said Shick in an email to the faculty.
Shick noted that faculty members have a very positive reaction to budget discussion thus far.
“Most were quite pleased to hear about the renewed emphasis on long-term planning regarding enrollment and budgetary matters.This change in approach makes us far more hopeful about the future for our faculty and students, despite our short-term financial issues.”
Along with an emphasis on long-term planning, JCU is changing the way it approaches budget decisions in other ways as wel.
According to Mausser, the budget has previously driven the decision making process for the University. This year that focus has been reversed.
“The real goal is for the planning to inform the budget. This is key,” said Mausser.
