Augustana's comprehensive value for the next school year was announced this past week.
In an e-mail sent out to students, Augustana President Rob Oliver said the reason the college is referring to this as the "comprehensive value" is because the large majority of Augustana students pay less than comprehensive costs due to scholarships and financial aid.
The comprehensive total costs for next year are $31,590. This includes the $24,790 costfor tuition, $6,286 for room and board and $314 for student fees. In comparison to last year's cost, this is a $1,852 increase in total comprehensive costs.
The reason cited in the e-mail to the students reads: "The increase in tuition is necessary to continue to invest in faculty and programs so that an Augustana education maintains its excellence and value."
The college also did not provide raises to faculty and staff last year and left some faculty positions open.
Chelsea Gransee, a sophomore psychology and biology major, understands why the college increased tuition.
"I'm not upset about it," Gransee said. "Professors don't get paid what they should be getting paid, in my opinion."
Although tuition increased, the meal plan costs remained the same.
"We wanted to keep plans as low as possible," Jim Bies, vice president for student services, said.
Bies said that the administration decided to raise costs minimally so that enrollment didn't see much impact.
Augustana costs are relatively low in comparison to other private colleges and universities across the nation. Vice President of Marketing and Communications Bob Preloger just returned from a meeting in Chicago with 20 other private colleges and universities across the nation.
"At $31,590 for next year, we were the second least expensive private college represented," Preloger said. "The average of the remaining schools was over $9,000 more than Augustana."
The only cheaper institution was Bryn Athyn College, which is a church-affiliated school outside Philadelphia, and its comprehensive costs are $25,000.
Preloger said the range of increases are certainly deceiving.
The University of Denver (DU) is going up around 2.7 percent, yet its comprehensive costs for next year will be nearly $48,000.
"It seems as though the higher cost institutions - DU, St. Olaf, DePauw, Allegheny - may have slowed their percentage rate of increase, yet they are all well in the $45,000 range to begin with," Preloger said. "There exists a feeling among them that as they close in on the $50,000 mark, the perception of affectability is a big question for many families."
One concept to note is that most of the states Preloger mentioned are states where there are state grant programs that award financial assistance on the basis of need. The Cal Grant, for instance, is worth $9,700 to qualified students. However, those grants are in serious danger of being cut or eliminated.
Preloger said that although not having a need-based program in South Dakota is not the best policy, Augustana is fortunate to never have had to rely on a need-based state grant program. This is one of the reasons Augustana's costs are lower than private schools in Minnesota and across the nation.
"One thing I hope happens is that the scholarships would increase along with the tuition increasing," Gransee said.
However, Brenda Murtha said scholarship amounts do not generally increase from year to year.
"There are some exceptions of course, when students are selected for certain academic scholarships by departments or the Faculty Scholarship Committee," Murtha said.
According to Murtha, if there is a significant increase in a family's financial need from one year to the next, the college is sensitive to that and will award additional Augustana grant funds as appropriate.
"The vast majority of students do not pay the full comprehensive cost of college because of the college's commitment to an aggressive scholarship and financial aid program, private colleges and universities invest significant resources in financial aid to make their institutions as affordable as possible," Preloger said.
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