JAIMIE FRANKLIN
Assistant News Editor
The Seaver Dean’s Office announced March 12 tuition will be raised yet again for the 2007-2008 school year, this time by 6 percent. A year at Pepperdine will now cost $34,580, or $17,290 per semester.
Room and board charges will also be increased by 4.5 percent and are set at $9,930 for dorm residents on the meal plan, $10,920 for dorm residents on the extra meal plan, and apartment living will be increased “modestly” as well, according to a letter sent to students issued by the Dean’s Office.
Tuition has been raised steadily every year for at least the past two decades, with current seniors enduring a 17.9 percent increase in tuition since their freshman year.
However, financial aid packages will be increased for returning students for the first time, with 35 percent of the added tuition revenue going toward financial aid. In past years, sophomores, juniors and seniors received the same amount of financial aid each year as they received their freshman year, even though tuition steadily increased.
Need-based financial aid packages will increase in proportion to the tuition increase, according to Dean David Baird.
Approximately 75 percent of students receive some form of financial aid.
According to Provost Darryl Tippens, staff pay raises including health insurance and other benefits account for close to 50 percent of the increase, and the rest will go toward infrastructure, financial aid and improvements around campus. However, Baird said it is difficult to determine exactly where each dollar will go, other than to general needs.
“In a sense, every dollar will go to the benefit of the students, in that it assures the continuation of current services, especially exceptional teaching and staff support,” Baird wrote in an e-mail.
“Put differently, most of the increase will go to support human resources.”
But reasons for the increase are complex, and a variety of factors contributed to the final decision, Tippens wrote in an e-mail. University costs, as well as the consumer price index for the higher education industry and California as a whole are largely responsible. The cost of housing, insurance, health care and labor are rising and the demand for professors with doctorate degrees is high, he wrote.
As a result, other universities in California are raising tuition as well. The UC System announced last week a 7 percent increase in student fees and Cal State students will pay 10 percent more, although prices were not raised last year. University of Southern California tuition and fees went up 5.6 percent this year, ending at $35,810.
According to the College Board, fewer than 5 percent of all college students attend schools costing more than $33,000 per year.
Pepperdine students are frustrated as a result.
“I’m glad I’m graduating because I can’t afford anything else,” Stevie Seibert, a junior, said. “I don’t put all the blame on Pepperdine because all higher education institutions have increasing costs. It’s just sad that our government doesn’t subsidize more of it because inevitably we are the youth of America and will keep America competitive in the global economy, and they’re not even investing in us.”
Sophomore Nick Stewart agreed the government should subsidize more higher education costs, but Stewart is also frustrated with Pepperdine.
“I think it’s not all of Pepperdine’s fault but I don’t see any increase in services as well as increases in costs,” Stewart said. “I don’t get my 7 percent better education for the 7 percent in tuition.”
But as long as costs in California are rising, students can expect to pay more in years to come, Tippens wrote.
“We do not increase costs lightly or easily. We struggled with the tuition challenge as much this year as any time I’ve been involved over the last seven years.”
03-22-2007
