By Caitlin Moran Editor in Chief
Tuition for full-time undergraduate students will increase by $1,607 to $29,400 for the 2008-09 academic year, said Denis Ransmeier, vice president for financial affairs.
The 5.8 percent increase is similar to that of recent years and will include the graduation, athletics and technology fees - three charges that previously appeared separately on students' invoices.
According to Ransmeier, the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) - a measure of the inflation rate for U.S. higher education - is typically higher than the Consumer Price Index because education is more reliant on human activity, whereas technological growth keeps the Consumer Price Index lower. The Consumer Price Index for the 2007 fiscal year was 2.6 percent, and the HEPI was 3.4 percent.
"The HEPI reflects the fact that higher education isn't as subject to productivity improvements because it's a human activity," Ransmeier said.
Current and pending campus projects, such as the engineering building and renovations to Shipstad and Villa Maria halls, also contributed to the tuition increase, Ransmeier said.
The University's ongoing lawsuit to acquire Triangle Park is another factor - UP has borrowed money for legal expenses and to clean up the property when it's purchased, Ransmeier said.
Tuition increases are almost inevitable, Ransmeier said, because of higher education's interpersonal nature and the need for quality facilities, technology and insurance at individual institutions.
"Education is an inherently expensive proposition," he said.
Herald Johnson, the interim director of Financial Aid, said his office analyzes each student's eligibility on an individual basis and considers factors such as tuition increases and changes in families' contribution abilities. Significant changes in these abilities usually cause Financial Aid to increase aid packages, Johnson said, whereas students who encounter more modest changes often rely on student loans.
"We do try to respond to increased demand," Johnson said.
Johnson also pointed out that eligibility amounts for certain federal loans increase as students progress through their college careers, which can help ease the burden of tuition increases. Another way students can compensate for growing rates is to seek out additional non-UP scholarships, he said.
Although some schools operate on a fixed tuition model, Ransmeier said it is more complicated than the system followed by UP, which ultimately makes the fixed model more expensive to administer.
Moreover, prospective freshmen at fixed-tuition schools often encounter tuition rates that are significantly higher than those of competitive schools, making it more difficult for the fixed-tuition schools to attract students, Ransmeier said. He estimates that UP's next freshman class would encounter tuition rates around $35,000 if the University followed a fixed model.
