The price of an education at Syracuse University is likely to increase next year, but administrators say they are trying to reduce the rate of increase as much as possible.

The board of trustees is finalizing the rates for the 2007 to 2008 fiscal year. Their decision will be based on a proposal the University Senate Budget Committee submitted Jan. 17, at USen’s monthly meeting. The proposal called for a 5.7 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and a 5 percent increase in room and board charges per year.

For each student, that’s $1,643 and $567, respectively.

These increases are actually lower than last fiscal year’s, both of which were 5.9 percent increases. They aren’t unusual at SU, either.

‘It would be difficult to imagine a situation where we wouldn’t have to raise tuition because the costs go up each year,’ said Christine Himes, chair of the senate budget committee and professor of sociology.

These basic costs – which are numerous – include utility fees, salary and healthcare coverage increases. Roughly two-thirds of the proposed tuition increase accounts for these basic costs, said John Hogan, director of the Office of Budget and Planning.

The remaining third is for extra costs, which include retaining faculty, paying fees associated with new buildings and funding an upgrade of the campus’s computer network. Some of that money is also for financial aid, which Hogan said anticipated the needs of next year’s incoming freshmen class.

Although fund raising helps cover all these costs, tuition is the biggest source of money.

‘We are tuition-driven,’ said Vice Chancellor Eric F. Spina.

However, Chancellor Nancy Cantor and the university administration are aware of how a large price tag affects students and their families, he said. At the last USen meeting, the chancellor said she would like to see a lower rate of tuition increase.

‘We want to make sure folks who want to attend can afford it,’ Spina said.

One way to ensure affordability is to rely on sources of income other than tuition.

A major fund-raising campaign is about to begin, Spina said. This would add to the university’s current endowment of about $1 billion.

The university invests its endowments and spends part of the profits. Some donors specify how and where they want their donation spent.

But fundraising will not immediately reduce pressure on tuition.

‘It takes an awful long time to have the benefits of fundraising felt,’ Hogan said.

The other possibility is to contain spending that exceeds the university’s basic needs. Some of this responsibility falls on the senate budget committee, which tries to increase spending efficiency in all areas. But this brings up the debate of cost versus quality.

‘There’s a lot of sympathy for keeping the rates lower,’ Himes said, ‘but there is also the tradeoff.’

The Strategic Faculty Development Fund, for example, is used to retain professors who might leave SU for another job offer. A raise is typically offered as an incentive to stay.

But some think extra spending needs to be examined.

‘They’re covering costs, but not all these costs are essential,’ said Tom Hackman, a junior political science and policy studies major who was on the senate budget committee last semester.

The usefulness of the faculty fund is questionable, he said, because it is rarely used in response to professors threatening to leave.

The need for and speed of special projects, such as the network upgrade, should also be examined, he said.

‘Sure we need to keep the university up to par, but there are obviously limits to what we can do each year,’ Hackman said.

As always, tuition increases can lead to debt issues.

While federal law limits how much money students can borrow for college, there is no cap on what their families borrow.

‘If you look at how much costs increase over time, family incomes aren’t matching it,’ said Chris Walsh, dean of financial aid.

The people who feel the most pressure are the students who fall between the 25 percent with full scholarships and aid and the 25 percent who pay full tuition, said David Smith, the vice president for enrollment.

‘You can’t continue forever down this $2,000-a-year (tuition increase) road,’ Hackman said. ‘Not next year – but, in a few years, we may be facing a debt crisis among students.’

Published on January 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm