Natasha Sakovich | Editor-in-Chief
According to a recent press release, undergraduate students continuing their education at Lindenwood in the fall will see a 3.8 percent increase for room, board and tuition costs for the 2012-2013 school year. The total figure for room, board and tuition costs will increase to $22,180, from their 2011-2012 level of $21,360 per year.
Lindenwood’s Board of Directors approved the increase during their Feb. 10 meeting. LU Public Relations Coordinator Chris Duggan said the 3.8 percent increase broken down by specifics looks like this:
2011-12 tuition-$13,650
2012-13 tuition-$14,250
2011-12 room-$3,720
2012-13 room-$3,820
2011-12 board-$3,280
2012-13 board-$3,400
2012-13 Health/activity fee-$350 (unchanged)
2012-13 Communication fee-$360 (unchanged)Story continues below advertisement
As stated in the Feb. 17 pressrelease on the LU website, “President Evans said the increase is necessary because of rising costs of operation and stressed that the school works hard to keep increases at a minimum.”
While no specifics were given for any major projects the hike will go towards, “The increase covers increases in operating costs, which go up every year, just like they do for individuals,” Duggan said. This includes everything from personnel to instructional materials, the cost of food, maintenance, and construction costs.”
Even though Lindenwood’s tuition price is increasing, the new figures remains lower than the current cost, as well as planned increases, of other Missouri universities. For example, Mizzou’s estimated Missouri resident tuition for the 2011-2012 school year was $22,216, and Webster University’s tuition was $22,340. SLU’s estimated room, board and tuition fee for 2011-2012 was $33,470.
In the press release, Evans “also pointed out that a Lindenwood education is still a bargain, particularly considering steep increases currently being considered at Missouri’s public universities.”
The increases Evans mentioned were as steep as a 9.0 percent tuition increase for the University of Missouri at Rolla and a 7.5 increase for the Mizzou campus, Duggan said. However, since the press release, “the state of Missouri announced it would route $40 million of the state’s real estate settlement from mortgage lenders toward the state universities, and hence they say increases for the four campuses (Mizzou, Rolla, UMSL, and UMKC) will average 3 percent for 2012-13,” Duggan said.
LU students in the accelerated evening program, LCIE, will also see a hike in tuition, with increases at 4.3 percent beginning with the summer 2012 quarter. “The cost of a nine-hour cluster of undergraduate courses will be $3,060 per quarter, and the cost of a nine-hour cluster of graduate courses will be $3,708,” according to the press release.
This increase in tuition and fees is not unusual, as during the past five years at LU, “tuition increases have averaged 2.5 percent annually, or about one-half the average rate of increase nationally,” according to an archived press lease from March 2011 on LU’s website. Tuition was increased for the current 2011-2012 year by 2.9 percent from the previous year.
Even with the hike in tuition price for 2012-2013, Duggan mentioned that Evans said, “The increase only covers a portion of our increased operating costs. The university will absorb the rest.”
