Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081631
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
College officials credit themselves with cutting costs, especially in administration, and passing the savings on to students.
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 were far in excess of the nation's inflation rate.
"The market and the political context are beginning to have an impact," said Robert Atwell, president of the American Council of Education. "I think we're approaching the end of the big increases. 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, say Atwell and others, has been a recent falloff in applications at many colleges, including top ones, suggesting that schools no longer can simply raise their rates with impunity.
Average tuitions rose by 5-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 hikes in recent weeks:
About 500 students at Arizona State University in Tempe demonstrated last month after regents voted to raise yearly tuition by $116 for in-state students to $1,478, and $1,000 for out-of-state students to $6,484 at ASU.
At the University of Miami, where costs are headed up 9.9 percent to $18,212, about 150 students wore black armbands and carried a coffin to mourn the "death" of affordable tuitions.
Syracuse University students boycotted school-owned profit-making outlets in January to protest a 9.94 percent tuition increase that will raise annual costs to $17,588. During a nationally televised basketball game, students also displayed signs protesting the increase.
Next fall's more modest increases also may reflect nervousness in academia over a continuing U.S. Justice Department investigation of at least 56 private colleges looking into whether school officials are improperly collaborating in setting tuitions and financial aid packages.
Some colleges also seem to be taking serious steps to curb costs. Columbia's current budget calls for no growth in central administration budget.
A recent survey found administrators' salaries rose by just 4.5 percent this academic year, less than the overall inflation rate for the second time in three years.
And many schools have benefited from Wall Street's rebound from the stock-market crash. The National Association of College and University Business Officers reported in February that college endowments grew by 14.1 percent, the biggest gain in four years, and a turnaround from the 1.3 percent rise in 1987-88, when stocks took their worst beating since 1929.
by CNB