The Board of Trustees held their winter business meeting on Saturday, Jan. 31 in the Susquehanna Room, during which they discussed Elizabethtown College’s current budget and expected financial position for the 2015-16 academic year. At this meeting, the trustees made a difficult decision about the comprehensive fee — the combined costs of tuition, room and board — for the 2015-16 academic year with genuine care for the students at this college, and their decision should be applauded.
After the Board of Trustees’ winter meeting last year, the comprehensive fee for the current academic year increased by 4.5 percent from the 2013-14 academic year’s comprehensive fee. In turn, the comprehensive fee for the 2013-14 academic year was 4.4 percent higher than that of the 2012-13 academic year.
Most students are conscious of the College’s current financial situation and have expressed concern about how the school might make up for the revenue lost due to the smaller than usual current first-year class. After Lancaster Newspapers published a story about Etown’s budget, students became alarmed about staff and faculty members’ positions being cut as well as what seemed to be an inevitable tuition increase.
The College’s plan was to increase tuition by 4.5 percent for the 2015-16 academic year, as they had for the current academic year, to increase revenue in that area. An email sent by President Carl Strikwerda on Jan. 23 announced “the goal is to hold the annual increase at or below the 4.5 percent adjustment approved in 2014.” Despite the College’s current financial strain, the trustees voted to increase tuition by only 4.25 percent — the lowest increase in tuition most current students have seen between academic years since enrolling at Etown.
Obviously, neither the trustees nor administration expect students to be happy about any increase in tuition, but the decision the trustees made represents more than the negligible difference in dollar amount between 4.5 and 4.25 percent. That the trustees and administration would be willing to decrease tuition revenue when it is evident the College would benefit quite a bit from this extra money shows a great deal of concern for students and their families.
This lesser percentage increase also shows the trustees recognize increasing the comprehensive fee every year is not a sustainable budgeting strategy. The change from a 4.5 percent increase to a 4.25 percent increase acknowledges this and potentially is the beginning of a trend to lessen each year’s increase in the comprehensive fee. The trustees also voted to approve a motion by the Finance Committee that the College recommend options for a new comprehensive fee model, including discount and pricing strategies.
“When we vote to set fees for the upcoming year, we don’t take that responsibility lightly, and in fact, many of us vote with great concern, knowing that the increased costs may mean that some students might not be able to return to Etown the following fall,” former Board of Trustees Chairman James Shreiner wrote of last year’s increase in a letter to the editor published in the Etownian in February 2014. It is clear from the decision made on Saturday that the trustees do care about students’ perceptions of the College as well as their ability to pay to attend the school.
The campus community as a whole has needed, and will continue to need, to make sacrifices for the continued success of the College. Faculty and staff members will not receive any increases in pay during the next academic year, and some positions will be discontinued. The College as a whole is working to compromise, too — though the difference between a 4.5 percent increase and a 4.25 percent increase is not especially significant to most students, the loss of this revenue from every enrolled student is certainly a sacrifice on the part of the College.
Lastly, the trustees have sacrificed their time to make a careful, educated decision that they believe will best serve the student population as well as Etown as an institution. It is worth noting that the trustees do not receive salaries from the College.
Though no one wants to see an increase in the comprehensive fee, the College does need to maintain both its budget and the quality of the education it provides. The change from the expected 4.5 percent increase in the comprehensive fee to a 4.25 percent increase is symbolic of the trustees’ awareness of the individuals their decisions affect. Seeing the members of the Board of Trustees display such concern for current students and their families should make the campus community proud to be part of an institution that genuinely values it.
