GUEST COLUMN: Differential tuition increase will prove a wise investment
The College of Business is about to take an important and vital step that will pay off for students for years to come. We are elevating our game. This change will, however, require an investment.
Others would just call this step a tuition increase. I hope that the following information will help our students see why we think this is an investment too.
The College of Business has received permission from the Utah State Board of Regents to have a differential tuition increase this fall that we estimate will add about $735 to the average junior and senior’s tuition in 2007-2008.
We recognize that tuition increases can be very difficult. Our early experience has shown, however, that while no one wants to pay more for tuition, our students have been much more supportive of this change once they understand why it is necessary.
We have learned this as we have sought the feedback and advice from our business senator, McKenzie Anderson, from the business senator-elect, Eddie Norton, and our student-led Business Council. We have met with Noah Riley, president of the Associated Students of Utah State University, and Troy Smith, executive vice president of ASUSU. We have also met with the ASUSU student government leaders.
We discussed this change with a focus group of students, and we have consulted with our National Advisory Board. This was also presented to the University Board of Trustees before it was unanimously approved by the Board of Regents.
We explained to all these groups and individuals that the additional funds are crucial to our ability to keep our best faculty members on board and are vital if we are to hire the caliber of new professors we need to help the college progress. A number of professors on our faculty plan to retire in the next five years. More than half will probably retire in the next 10 years. We will not be able to fill those positions at current market rates without increased funding.
Loss of faculty to retirement isn’t the only thing threatening the College of Business. The new professors we hire now usually make more than the professors who have been here for years. It doesn’t take an advanced business degree to figure out what this type of salary inversion can do to an institution.
There are two basic paths open to us now. One path leads us to a place where it will be a struggle to be just good enough and a fight to even stay accredited, but “good enough” is not enough for us. The other path takes us from good to great. We aspire to greatness.
Our proposal was closely modeled after a University of Utah differential tuition increase that was approved and implemented last year. The University of Utah plans to bump its differential tuition to $50 per credit hour for upper division business courses this summer. Even that is a bargain compared to many schools. For example, the University of Illinois now charges $3,462 in differential tuition and the University of Colorado charges $2,700 in differential tuition.
Our plan will cost our junior and senior students $35 more per credit hour in 2007-2008 and $50 more in 2008-2009. The increase for the college’s graduate courses will amount to $75 per credit hour in 2007-2008 and an additional $50 per credit hour in each of the next two years.
Raising more money through this differential tuition increase will not be enough to address our challenges. The good news is that our alumni and friends of the College of Business have seen the progress we are making, and we are counting on their support to make this transformation complete. We are aggressively looking for additional funding for scholarships that can help our students absorb this increase.
We held a brown bag discussion on March 22 and we have another open forum planned for April 4 from 2:30 to 3:30 pm. on the ninth floor of the George S. Eccles Business Building, where I will offer more details about this change and answer questions.
I have faith that as students find out what is at stake, most of them will be supportive of this move. Their investment in their own education will send a strong message to alumni and friends of the college who care about the College of Business and the students it serves.
One study showed that the average graduate of a college of business can expect to make in excess of $500,000 over the course of a career more than a graduate of a liberal arts college. My expectation is that our students will recognize that this is an investment that will pay off for them and that they will understand that the time is now to elevate our game and go from good to great.