Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 24 - April 18, 2012

              In This Week's Issue: Be Sure to Check Out Page 2 for Photographic Coverage ofAround the World!
THEJyMIRROR
Week of April 18,2012 • Vol. 37, Iss 24 • Jg^ Reflection ofFairfleld * Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
Projected budget demands tuition hike
BY MARTIN O'SULLIVAN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
In light of last semester's
announcement of a $6.1 million
budget deficit, tuition as well
as room and board for Fairfield
University will be raised by 2.75
percent for the coming school
year. This leaves the Univer-sity's
sticker price, or total cost
of attendance without any aid,
at $53,640.
Initiallyannouncedthrough
an email from President Jef-frey
von Arx, S.J., administra-tors
held a forum for students
on Friday, April 13, to share the
details of this new projected
budget.
In regard to this tuition
increase, von Arx said: "The fi-nancial
reality is that we really
need to bring it under control.
Previous years it was six, seven,
eight percent... we just kept do-ing
that and you're parents
kept paying. [We] ^
can't do that A V»J^P6flS© /w
anymore; ftV ^^flMI Ifeta^. /*
We know
that." ^<
Von Arx explained that de-spite
the necessity of this in-crease,
"the tuition increase for
this year is going to be as low as
it has ever been in early mem-ory
at Fairfield University." He
added: "It is below the cost of
living. It is one of the lowest, if
not the lowest, tuition increase
of any of our competitors," cit-ing
schools such as Holy Cross,
Quinnipiac and Villanova, all
of which have tuition increases
around four percent.
However, some voiced dif-ferent
sentiments in regards to
this increase. FUSA President
Robert Vogel '13, who also sits
on the student budget commit-tee,
said: "2.75 percent is still
2.75 percent, and if we keep
growing at 2.75 percent then
eventually we're going to hit
$60,000 and eventually we're
going to hit $70,000. There's no
avoiding that if we keep
growing."
Operational k Enrollment
< lotil inffi'iicU'*: 2%
Von Arx was
joined at the forum by Vice Pres-ident
of Finance Julie Dolan, the
primary speaker of the event, as
well as several other adminis-trative
figures. Dolan stressed
the necessity of this increase
due to the fact that Fairfield is
"a very tuition dependent insti-tution."
"That means that a huge
portion of our revenue pie
[chart] has not been growing for
the last five years very much,"
she continued, citing an annual
increase in net undergradu-ate
revenue of less than half a
percent. "Meanwhile, the rate
of tuition increase, the sticker
price, has grown."
Students
were not the only
ones to voice opin-ions.
Dr. Giovanni
Ruffini, a classical studies
professor, said, "There's a lack
of transparency that's part of
the problem. ... Most people
don't know what's driving that
tuition increase."
He continued: "Frankly, the
suspicions that some of the fac-ulty
have are that increases are
not being driven by education-related
expense. In other words,
you're not getting more value
for your dollar. You're getting
more administration for your
dollar."
However, Dolan assured
that hiring for new positions
was being kept to a minimum,
and conversely that the new
budget did not include any ad-ditional
layoffs.
■ ■■ii.il... i..-. ...n. i -—
"3r @MirrorFairfield
In regards to the
school's current standing
with the recent deficit,
von Arx said, "Our num-ber
one goal is to balance
the budget, and we believe
that we balanced the
budget."
Dolan explained
the reasons behind
the original imbal-ance,
citing the
fact that the an-nual
expense in-crease
was slight-ly
higher than the
annual growth
rate of revenue.
"This is why we've
been facing kinds
of challenges this
year and next year ^tt
for the first time
because the lines
are not quite in par-allel,"
she said.
When asked her
perception of the school's efforts
to address the deficit, forum at-tendee
Alicia Bisonette '12 said,
"I feel like they're trying ... I feel
like a lot of the pressure that has
been making them try harder
has come from the students, so
I think it's great that Fairfield is
finally stepping up a little bit on
the student end of it."
In addition to balancing the
budget as well as keeping tu-ition
as low as possible, von Arx
explained the goal for "financial
aid [to] remain the same."
Dolan explained how this
directly correlated with the tu-ition
increase: "Obviously, here
at Fairfield we have a deep and
long held commitment to pro-viding
as much need-based
financial aid to our students
as we possibly can to allow
academically-worthy students
to be able to attend regardless
of financial certifications. But
often times, in order to pay for
that, since we are not a particu-larly
well-endowed ... some in-stitutions
have to increase their
sticker price of their tuition."
Vogel said, "We have had
that commitment [to financial
aid], but at the cost of a higher
sticker price for everyone. So
where is that balance? Where is
it that we start to realize we can't
keep doing that? We can't keep
raising tuition and then rais-ing
institutional financial aid,
need-based or merit-based."
In an infographic slide-show,
Dolan shared a five year
look at the difference in the
University's annual revenues
fairfieldmirror.com
Departments and Other Auxiliary
All other: 2% (The Levee, bookstore, etc.): 4%
r©venue
and expenses from 2007 to
2012.
"The sticker price for tu-ition
cumalitively went up
about 25 percent over that five
year period," she said. "The dis-count
rate, the amount people
actually pay after financial aid
... that went up about 13 per-cent
in total."
In addition to these numbers,
Dolan shared that compared to
2007, 2012 saw:
• a 4 percent decrease in the num-ber
of undergraduate students
• a 14 percent point increase in
the number of students receiving
some form of financial aid, with
Endowment and Gifts: 11%
the overall cost of fi-nancial
aid increasing by
about $20 million
• a combined increase in
faculty and staff salaries of
approximately $8 million
and an increase in benefits
by $6.5 million
• an approximately $8 mil-lion
increase in the amount
of fixed rate interest and de-preciation
(debt)
So what does 2013 hold,
aside from the tuition bump?
For revenue, the projected
budget is set for an incoming
freshman class of 925, though
admissions has a target of 950.
Dolan explained how this leaves
some leeway, as opposed to this
year when the incoming class was
only 909 students despite a pro-jected
budget of 950 students.
On the expense side, faculty
salaries will be raised between
one and 1.5 percent, dependent
of faculty salary. Faculty benefits
will also be reduced from 10 to 8
percent.
Dolan concluded: "It's sort
of a balancing act for us to try
and have the revenue base that is
growing, but not to make ourselves
so out-of-reach that sticker shock
turns people away."
Mabel Folanco/lhe Mirror
Sophomores Jesus Nunez and Ricky Solano slept in boxes at the
traffic circle.
EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS | PAS13
III in
Connect with us online! Fairfield Mirror