|
Dear Chapman Parent: You may have heard about a topic of discussion that recently attracted students’ attention and created anxiety about future trends in tuition and financial aid at our university. It all started when I attended our monthly Faculty Forum luncheon to present my research results that I initially reported in an article, “Is Higher Education Becoming a Commodity,” published in the November 2004 Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. Never has a piece I’ve written generated as much campus debate, discord and confusion. A blog has emerged with postings that suggest my article lays the foundation for a hidden strategy to reduce institutional aid in the form of financial aid and scholarships at Chapman. Nothing could be further from the truth. Earlier this month, I attended an open meeting to try to explain my research results and respond to students’ questions. To reach out to more of our community members, I also wrote a letter that was published in last week’s Panther newspaper. Since this is an issue that is critical to families that are trying to make ends meet while paying the cost of a Chapman education, I wanted to write to you as well in hopes of alleviating the concerns that appear to have reached at least some of our parents. In recent years, a few colleges and universities have decided to reduce tuition and end all forms of institutional aid. The point of my article was to attempt to explain not only why these schools are pursuing this new tuition strategy but also what kinds of schools are likely to do so. Without getting into a lot of statistical detail, I concluded in my article that the schools reducing both tuition and institutional aid will tend to be less selective in terms of the students they admit. More selective schools will likely continue their current practices. In the context of the implications of these findings to Chapman, clearly Chapman is a selective school. In the most recent U.S. News ranking, we are #1 in student selectivity out of the 127 colleges and universities in our western region. This is a notable achievement that reflects great credit on the academic preparedness of our students. What makes this #1 ranking even more impressive is that in 1990-91 we ranked 92nd out of 112 schools… quite a rise, to say the least. But what does this selectivity mean in terms of our tuition and financial aid strategies? Some data may shed light on this. Over the last six years from 2000-01 to 2006-07, Chapman’s tuition increased, on average, by 6.3 percent each year. This increase is exactly the same (6.3 percent) as a sample of 13 other private colleges and universities in Southern California. (Please note I’m not cherry-picking the time intervals to get the results I want. In fact, when I did a ten-year analysis, Chapman’s tuition increase was lower than that of the competition.) But while Chapman’s tuition increased at the same rate as other privates around us (6.3 percent) over the last six years, our institutional aid increased at an even faster 7.0 percent rate. So after taking account of financial aid and scholarships, net tuition at Chapman increased by 5.8 percent, on average, each year. I wish the increase were lower, but I’m comforted by the fact that we’ve been able in the high cost environment of Orange County to keep our tuition increases in line with our competition while increasing our institutional aid at a faster rate. What does the future hold? It’s hard for me to say since we don’t really know about future cost increases or the level of contributions from our generous donors who support our institutional aid awards. It’s safe to say, though, that our long-term strategy will remain the same: keep tuition increases to a minimum while doing all we can to offset the tuition increases with higher institutional aid. I hope I have been helpful in responding to any concerns that you and your Chapman student may be feeling about this matter. If you have any interest in reading my paper, please let me know and I will send you a copy. In addition to providing a lot of empirical data, I promise it is also a highly effective sleep aid. Sincerely,
|
|
|
|
