THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997 TAG: 9701220379
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 63 lines
Virginia Wesleyan College students will face a 5.5 percent increase in tuition and fees in the fall - the lowest increase at the private school in more than 20 years.
``We have gotten it down as low as we possibly can and still continue to move forward in providing the best we can for our students,'' said Martha E. Rogers, vice president for enrollment management.
Annual tuition and fees will rise $700 from the current $12,700 to $13,400 in the 1997-98 school year. Room and board will stay the same, at $5,550. The total package for campus residents will rise 3.8 percent, from $18,250 to $18,950.
The increase in tuition and fees was approved by the college's Board of Trustees last week; letters were subsequently sent to parents and students.
``If it was a public college, I'd say it was pretty high,'' said Nathan Campbell, a 19-year-old freshman from Alexandria. ``But as it is a private college, I think it's fairly reasonable.
``I know they're earmarking the increases for important stuff. It's not like they're building a new faculty lounge with the money.''
Rogers said the revenue from the tuition increases would go toward academic items, including technology, the library and faculty development.
Virginia Wesleyan, a Methodist-affiliated school with 1,460 students, is the first local college to announce its rates for 1997-98. The other schools traditionally set their rates in spring.
Virginia Wesleyan's current tuition-and-fee total is slightly lower than the $12,823 average for private colleges reported last fall in a national study by the College Board. But Virginia Wesleyan ranks in the bottom half, in terms of costs, of the roughly 15 private colleges that belong to the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges.
Unlike state-supported schools, Virginia Wesleyan charges the same rates for in-state and out-of-state students.
Last year, Wesleyan raised tuition and fees by 9 percent - a sharply higher increase than the 5 percent average for private colleges in the College Board study. Wesleyan officials said that was primarily due to efforts to expand technology, such as wiring all campus residence halls for Internet use.
But with the cost increase came a promise to increase grants and scholarships to each recipient by the same percentage. The college will do that again this fall.
That eased Katherine Gullixson's concerns about next year's rates. ``The fact that scholarships will increase if tuition is, too - that's good, so I don't have to worry about losing money,'' said Gullixson, an 18-year-old freshman from Washington.
Virginia legislators have frozen tuition - but allowed other fees go to up - at state-supported schools through next year.
Last year, the average tuition-and-fee total at those schools rose less than 1.5 percent, to $4,002 a year.
``If we did that, as many of our sister state institutions are doing, our program would stagnate,'' Rogers said. ``That can't be what we're about.''
She noted that Wesleyan, like the public institutions, relies on tuition money and gifts. But unlike the others, Wesleyan gets no state aid.
Setting rates is always a struggle, she said. ``Obviously, we want more and more funds because funds translate directly into student services. On the other hand, we want to keep costs as low as we possibly can for students.''
KEYWORDS: TUITION VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE