The University News Celebrating 90 Years as a Student Voice of Saint Louis University
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Vol. XCI No. 16
CRAVING MEXICAN FOOD? Check out a new place to eat >> ARTS
Thursday, January 26, 2012
SLU BEATS XAVIER SLU takes lead in Atlantic 10 conference >> SPORTS
Case dismissed: Law School to leave Frost Aspiring attorneys to attend classes downtown By JONATHAN ERNST Editor-in-Chief
Since dropping out of the U.S. News and World Report top 100 schools of law in 2010, falling from a Tier 2 university to a Tier 3, the Saint Louis University School of Law has searched for revitalization. University administrators hoped that would come with a planned $35 million expansion of the current School of Law building at Morrissey Hall. Those plans were delayed due to a faltering econ-
Salaries stuck in neutral
omy. Expansion appeared years away, but on Tuesday, the School of Law received a boost as SLU announced that the school will move into a donated 11-story, 260,000-square-foot building in downtown St. Louis. The move will make SLU the largest educational institution located in downtown St. Louis with the school’s more than 1,100 students, faculty and staff. “We are really excited about our new home. This is a
great opportunity for students and alumni to be in the heart of the legal community in St. Louis,” said Annette Clark, J.D., dean of the SLU School of Law. “This move opens up so many opportunities for our students.” St. Louis businessman Joe Scott Sr., the founder and current owner of Scott Properties, which owns and manages more than 2 million square feet of office space in the St. Louis region, and his wife Loretta donated the building, located at 100 N. Tucker Blvd.
In recognition of the donation, SLU will name the building the Joe and Loretta Scott Law Center. “The donation of this building is a true blessing,” SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., said in a press release. “Thanks to generosity of Joe and Loretta Scott, we can now realize our dream of creating a modern space that reflects the outstanding teaching and scholarship taking place in See “Law Center” on Page 3
Photo Courtesy of Saint Louis University
The Joe and Loretta Scott Center is scheduled to house the SLU Law School as early as the 2012-13 academic year.
SLU announces annual tuition increases
By JAMES MEINERS Managing Editor
Saint Louis University will not be increasing salaries for faculty, staff or administration, except for those who have contractually obligated raises. Interim Vice President and Chief Financial Officer David Heimburger said the University was very mindful of the financial situations of students and their families when setting next year’s rates. President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., wrote a message to all SLU students, faculty, staff and trustees saying, “This year we spent $3.6 million above the $112.7 million we had previously budgeted to meet the financial needs of our students and their parents.” The University maintains that the bottom line of family budgets weighed heavily in the decision-making process. Another major reason for the wage freeze was the increasing uncertainty of SLU’s health care system, SLUCare. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform plan passed by Congress in 2009, will begin to be implemented at SLUCare in the next few years. Due to the new legislation, SLU must begin to deal with any ambiguities of the new laws. Regarding the health care legislation, the President’s Message said, “Additionally, the potential for significant upheaval to the health care industry through legislative or legal actions remains a concern.” Heimburger also spoke to the importance of SLUCare, adding that the physicians’ practice contributes about 30 percent to the University’s overall budget. “Our clinical practice is dedicated to our mission, so we don’t have the same revenue stream coming in that an operation without the same mission does [like University of Missouri or University of Missouri-St. Louis],” Heimburger said. According to the mission statement on SLU’s website, “[The University]
Source: The College Board
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Illustration by: Tess Hejna / Design Director
By BRIAN BOYD News Editor
On Jan. 17, Saint Louis University President Fr. Lawrence Biondi, S.J., announced in his monthly President’s Message that undergraduate tuition would increase by 3.8 percent for the 2012-13 academic year, raising the annual amount to $34,740. The SLU Board of Trustees approved the increase in December. In the message, Biondi emphasized the University’s commitment to its mission of education, research, service and health care and acknowledged the need to keep tuition increases at a moderate level. “To fulfill our mission --while moving the University forward — means that we must keep tuition increases reasonable and affordable while controlling our expenses in relationship to our accumulative revenue sources,” Biondi said in the message. In addition to the increase in undergraduate tuition approved by the Board of Trustees, graduate and professional tuition will increase by 2 percent. Room and board will
also see a 2 percent increase. Student Government Association President Matt Ryan characterizes annual tuition increases as “tough,” but he sees SLU as a valuable university. “If you look at our top Jesuit school competitors, out of the top 25 schools, we have the 12th highest tuition but are consistently ranked in the top five best schools,” Ryan said. “It’s not that we don’t need to be constantly cognizant of our costs. We need to match every dollar increase with an increase in value.” Some students, such as senior Joe Andreoni, hope that the increased tuition brings some minor changes to campus. “Hopefully, with the raise in tuition, they can afford to open DeMatt and Fusz food courts before 11 a.m. for hungry students like myself,” Andreoni said. The 3.8 percent undergraduate tuition increase stands as the lowest amount since the 2009-10 academic year. In 2010-11 and 2011-12, tuition increased 4 percent each year. According to a 2011 report
titled “Trends in College Pricing” by The College Board, the national average undergraduate tuition increase for four-year private nonprofit colleges (such as SLU) was 4.5 percent in 2010-11 and 4.6 percent in 2011-12. Interim Vice President of
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A [college] education is expensive, as [students] know. Our goal was to keep our tuition rates manageable for our families. -David Heimburger, interim vice president of business and finance and chief financial officer
”
Business and Finance and Chief Financial Officer David Heimburger said that at least six other Jesuit universities will have higher tuition increases than SLU next year and that SLU’s increase will be in line with the expected U.S. Consumer Price Index. The CPI serves as a measure
By KRISTEN MIANO Associate News Editor
Blue the Billiken College is expensive!
Minghao Gao / Staff Photographer
The University News prints on partially recycled paper.
higher education drives the price. “As the workforce becomes more skilled, the more the product, or college degree, will be needed,” Gladson said. “Over a lifetime, the degree reaps benefits and outweighs the cost. A college degree offers a higher wage profile and an insurance policy in the job market.” In the President’s Message, Biondi said that SLU remains in a solid financial position overall and cited the impact of external forces on the University, such as “the turbulent U.S. economy, growing challenges to student recruitment and retention, as well as the uncertainties of health care” and economic uncertainty in Europe. “If a meltdown in the European economy were to occur, it would significantly affect American markets as well as our endowment, which was significantly impacted by the economic crisis that began in 2008,” Biondi said in the message. “It is important that we prepare ourselves for similar stormy economic weather.” See “Tuition” on Page 3
SGA president and Patankar promote forward thinking
See “Salaries” on Page 3
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of the changes in the price level of goods and services purchased by U.S. households. It is published monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “A [college] education is expensive, as [students] know,” Heimburger said. “Our goal was to keep our tuition rates manageable for our families.” As a whole, the annual price increases in higher education have outpaced the CPI. According to the “Trends in College Pricing” report, from 2001-02 to 2011-12, tuition rates at four-year private colleges rose 2.6 percent above the inflation rate. SLU Professor of Economics Lisa Gladson said that colleges and universities are human endeavors and therefore possess high labor costs due to the need for highly skilled, and often times expensive, labor in the form of faculty and staff. Another factor affecting college costs is the need for schools to attract students and the resources required to do so. Above all, however, Gladson said that the increasing demand and necessity for
SGA president Matt Ryan addresses the senate during their Jan. 25 meeting. Ryan presented the President’s annual State of the Assocation Address.
This Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting largely focused on the future of the University and the senate. The meeting started with a presentation on Recyclemania, an intercollegiate recycling competition in which schools compete to produce the most recycling per capita. The eight- week competition’s goal is to raise awareness and encourage recycling on college campuses. Vice President of Academic Affairs Manoj Patankar presented to the senate on the structure of Saint Louis University’s strategic plan. The plan, which was approved by
the Board of Trustees, calls for the deans and vice presidents of the University to begin to develop their own plans for their respective areas. Patankar said that the University is currently in the process of building teams and structures while collecting input from various stakeholder groups, including students, faculty and staff. Patankar also talked of University plans to improve the core experiences for both graduate and undergraduate students and ways in which he hopes to see SLU become more globalized. Flats Senator Krishi Peddada questioned how the strategic plan hoped to increase the school’s rankings. “We have been talking
about how to improve rankings across the board,” Patankar said. “We are shooting for the top 50, but we want to focus on improving student interaction and quality of education as well.” Education and Public Service Senator Nathan Klosterman asked about the process by which the University has started assessing the academic departments and colleges. Patankar said that the plan involves using old and new processes to assess the effectiveness of the various academic programs, looking at how they can be improved or how they could be presented in different ways. See “SGA” on Page 2