Cost of higher learning going up

As gas, health care and food prices continue to climb, the cost of going to college is increasing at a much steadier rate and shows no signs of slowing down.

All but one Northeastern Pennsylvania college has announced its tuition, room and board, and mandatory fee schedules for the 2008-09 academic year. Each school’s costs for new students were hiked, ranging from 4 percent at Lackawanna College to 9.7 percent at the University of Scranton.

For Luzerne County schools, Misericordia University and King’s College both approved 5.4 percentage increases for tuition with Wilkes University approving a 4.5 percent hike. Luzerne County Community College changed the way it charges, going from a per-credit rate to a flat semester charge for full-time students.

The annual budgeting process is like walking a tight rope, said Mike Frantz, vice president for enrollment at Wilkes University.

“There’s that balance that we’re trying to strike,” Frantz said. “Keep education affordable while maintaining a degree of quality,” he said. In most years that’s a challenging task for boards of trustees that set the tuition rates.

Dr. Lisa Marie McCauley, King’s College vice president for business affairs and treasurer, said staff salaries and benefits account for 75 percent of the school’s budget. With increases for just those two expenditures usually at about 30 percent each year, the budget committee has a tough job.

“I would like to have a year where you don’t increase but the way costs increase I can’t see how,” McCauley said. “That’s almost impossible in today’s environment.”

According to the College Board, from the 2006-07 to the 2007-08 academic years, tuition costs increased nationally 4.2 percent at community colleges, 6.3 percent for private institutions and 6.6 percent at public four-year colleges.

Thomas P. Leary, president at LCCC, said, “The primary mission of LCCC is to keep education accessible and affordable for students. We are aware of the many financial obligations our students must meet while at the same time trying to finance their education.”

Tuition rates have to be attractive to potential students and need to be competitive, but to offer a top-quality education to attract students means paying big bucks for top-rate professors, equipment and facilities, Frantz said.

While half of the local colleges have seen tuition and mandatory fees jump by at least 28 percent over the past six years – with the University of Scranton leading the way with a 46.8 percent jump – the average annual bump is about 5 percent.

“I’d like my health care costs or the price of gas to only go up 5 to 6 percent each year,” Frantz said. According to AAA records, the price of an average gallon of gas has jumped 118 percent since September 2003.

The national inflation rate the first quarter of this year has hovered around 4 percent.

The Rev. Scott J. Pilarz, S.J., president of the University of Scranton, also addressed the predicament colleges are put in by trying to keep tuition increases to a minimum while offering top-notch education.

“Our parents tell us that we need to continue to invest in resources and programs that will add even more value to a Scranton degree. At the same time, they expect that we will do our best to keep costs down, something we take seriously. We are nationally recognized for the value of a Scranton education. Nevertheless, higher education is an expensive enterprise . . . At the same time, we face increases in many costs that are beyond our control, such as energy, health care, and technology.”

Joseph X. Garvey, vice president of business affairs at Marywood University, said local colleges are not only mindful of keeping tuition competitive on a national level, but they’re aware of what other local private schools are charging.

“It is extremely difficult for Marywood University, for that matter, all small to mid-size independent institutions of higher education, to maintain reasonable tuition costs to students. Competition is a significant factor in setting tuition and fees, particularly in NEPA where there is a concentration of similar size colleges and universities vying for the same student,” Garvey said.

Some schools, like Lackawanna College, cater to a certain kind of student and know that to increase costs by more than a certain amount would leave those students with no other educational option.

Lackawanna College spokesman Kevin O’Hara said his school’s goal each year when setting tuition rates is to keep costs down and to keep the school’s tuition “among the lowest, if not the lowest” among the state’s private colleges.

“We serve primarily blue-collar families. You can’t price yourself out of the market,” O’Hara said.

While Lackawanna does have the lowest tuition/mandatory fee costs for private schools in the three-county area at $10,560, the University of Scranton has the steepest tuition/fees. A freshman student enrolling for fall classes will need to shell out $31,576 for the year.

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Local colleges and universities have raised tuition, fees for 2008-09 year.

Education costs

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