Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003082141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Medium

COLLEGE TUITION INCREASES EASING

But some higher education leaders believe next fall's modest increases also are a response to a growing sense of outrage among students, legislators and others after a decade in which tuition increases far outstripped inflation.

"I think we're approaching the end of the big increases," said Robert Atwell, president of the American Council of Education.

"What's doing it is the demographics, the student response, the legislative response in some cases, the governing boards getting interested in this issue, the editorial boards of newspapers and magazines."

Especially sobering, said Atwell and others, has been a recent falloff in applications at many colleges, including top ones such as Harvard, suggesting that schools no longer can simply raise their rates with impunity.

Stanford University is raising fixed student fees by 5.25 percent in 1990-91 to $20,210, the smallest increase in 15 years, and considerably less than the 8 percent increase in the current year. The smaller increase results from a $22 million cost-cutting program, school officials said.

Hollins College has decided to raise tuition 7.1 percent, from $9,900 to $10,650. Last year, Hollins officials raised fees 6.9 percent. And Washington and Lee University in Lexington plans a 7.4 percent tuition increase to $10,850.

The governing boards of Roanoke College, Virginia Tech, Radford University, the University of Virginia and James Madison University have not yet voted on tuition increases for next year. Officials said this morning that those decisions will be made at board meetings later this month or in April.

"We can't set tuition until we know that the state budget is," said Charles Wood, executive assistant to Radford president Donald Dedmon.

This week, Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced its rates next fall will rise to $20,700, a 7.1 percent increase, compared to 7.2 percent the previous year.

The University of Michigan and Wayne State University are holding increases to the lowest level in years - 6.5 percent. A year ago, Michigan posted a 9.6 percent increase.

The Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, approved a 3 percent rise for 1990-91, the smallest in a decade.

Average tuitions rose 5 percent to 9 percent during the current school year, according to the College Board's most recent annual college cost survey.

Costs rose in double digits from 1981 through 1984. Rates at four-year public colleges shot up 20 percent in 1983-84. They leveled into the 5-9 percent range for the past five years.

Still, some like Richard Rosser, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, aren't ready to declare an end to the college cost spiral.

He and others point out that next fall's announced increases are "all over the map," with some still in double digits. And students on several campuses have protested steep increases in recent weeks.

Such protests would seem to indicate a mood change from previous years when students paid their tuition with barely a murmur even as rates were climbing by as much as 20 percent.

Higher education writer Daniel Howes contributed to this report.