By Victor Dixon, Editor-in-Chief
Inflation and increased personnel costs are among the reasons that Newman University has decided to raise tuition by 4% next year, President Kathleen Jagger said in an interview with The Vantage this week.
At the end of October, Newman’s senior leadership team recommended to the Board of Trustees an across-the-board increase, which was approved, Jagger said.
The decision was shared in an email to the student body on Tuesday.
“Please know that we don’t like to increase tuition. We really don’t,” Jagger said. “We work very very hard to keep Newman as affordable as possible. It’s something we don’t have complete control over because it has to do with market. It has to do with inflation.”
The tuition increase before financial aid equals $37,000 per year and includes a 4% increase to the cost of housing and meal plans. The price will go up for all traditional and transfer undergraduate students, including those enrolled now.
“Enrollment is looking very, very strong for the coming year,” Jagger said. “If that plays out, then we’ll be in better shape. I think Newman is still a really good deal for most people, especially with the amount of institutional aid that we are continuing to try to provide.”
Last year, Newman’s budget was cited as the reason for academic, administrative, and athletic reprioritizations, which included some program cuts, layoffs and the elimination of majors. But Newman won’t start to notice the savings from those changes until next year, Jagger said.
Further cuts and layoffs are not planned, Jagger said, and some new programs may even be added.
The last time Newman raised tuition was ahead of the 2023-2024 school year.
Some students said they felt that the tone of the email announcing the tuition increase was self-congratulatory, including Deqlan Mitchell, a sophomore sports media major.
“I get it. I’m not too mad about it,” he said. “But three out of the four paragraphs in the email were just about how they didn’t raise it last year. I understand that it needs to happen, but just tell us you’re raising it.”
Some students said they would have to look for ways to cover the increased cost, such as Faith Crabb, a junior education major.
“I’m going to have to take out more loans and go into more student debt, but I am going to try to find more scholarships on top of that,” she said.
PHOTO: Courtesy, Unsplash
