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Friday, Sept. 13 • TheFranklinNews.com
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Tuition pays for ‘high quality’ labor, education By Megan Banta
mbanta@franklincollege.edu
Percent increases of tuition 5.93% 5.30% 4.96%
4.94%
4.01% 3.72% 3.0%
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Listed by the fall semester of the academic year
The current price tag on a Franklin College education, or at least the portion that students are charged before scholarships and financial aid, is a little more than $36,000 in direct charges, which include tuition, fees, and room and board for fall and spring semester and winter term. College President Jay Moseley said in the case of the 3 percent of students who pay that full amount – 97 percent receive some form of financial assistance – what they pay covers about 75 percent of what the college actually spends on their education. Moseley said the other 25 percent is dependent on the college’s endowment, which covers around a fifth of the annual operating budget, and the “love of our alumni and the kindness of strangers.” Dan Schluge, vice president of finance for the college, said the 75 percent that comes from tuition, whether that is from direct student payments or scholarship payments, largely pays for labor. Schluge said about 41 percent of the money from tuition payments covers salaries and benefits for staff and faculty and covers the library and academic operating budgets. The other 59 percent, he said, covers salaries and benefits for student services, institutional support, fundraising and plant and covers operating budgets for
those and for auxiliary services, the largest of which is food. Schluge said tuition does not pay for new buildings. “We’re not jacking up tuition to pay for the $25 million science building,” he said. “We’re doing it through a capital campaign.” He said labor is the biggest cost because the college wants students to have the best experience possible during their four years at Franklin. “We have a very well-educated staff and faculty, and they need to be paid a fair salary,” he said. “We want to have the best here for the students.” Moseley said while other colleges and universities may be able to provide the same product – higher education – for less money, he doesn’t believe they can match the quality of a Franklin College education. “There are a lot cheaper ways of producing education than Franklin College does,” he said. “We don’t think those ways work as well as what we do.” He said providing smaller class sizes and allowing students to know their teachers is more expensive but allows students to learn in the best way possible. Senior Ali Brown said while See “Tuition” on Page 11