Approved tuition hikes include dollars for several aging heating and cooling systems
Tuition and fees for next school year will increase by 5.95 percent. The hikes, which were approved by the board of trustees last month, included a 1 percent increase that has been dedicated to deferred maintenance issues around campus.
According to president Jay Moseley, the Physical Facilities Committee, with the help of Lisa Fears, vice president for planting, planning and technology, has created a maintenance list totaling $1.8 million.
"Almost every year in any business or organization that has facilities, things stop working that you can’t afford to fix, and you patch them together. It’s very easy to put those things off, particularly if you’re trying to really keep your costs down," Moseley said.
More specifically, six campus facilities have HVAC systems that are 25 years or older and need to be replaced because 25 years is the at the end of a system’s life expectancy, which Moseley placed at 20 -25 years.
"While there is nothing ‘exciting’ about replacing hot water heaters, it’s imperative to be in a position to schedule their replacement rather than have students suffer the effects of a failure," Fears said.
In an e-mail to students and parents, Moseley said, "in order to address systematically over $1.8 million in deferred maintenance, starting next year Franklin College will devote one percent of student revenue to maintaining the beautiful campus that we all love."
The other 4.95 percent of the fee increase approved by the board will go toward maintaining the quality of services offered to students on campus.
"We are taking steps to ensure that our campus meets the needs of every student in terms of time, making services available when students need them, and space, maintaining and improving our facilities," Moseley wrote in the e-mail.
School-funded aid for students will not be affected by the increase. The college will continue to award scholarships to 95 percent of students.
That 95 percent will receive $10.5 million in scholarship money from the college next school year.
"Our challenge is to make Franklin College the best it can be, while also keeping our school financially accessible to the students we serve so well," Moseley said.
Franklin sits in the lower third in tuition costs of the Independent Colleges of Indiana, but according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, the average increase in tuition in Indiana is around 4.7 percent.
Many students feel that the increase is necessary but don’t think it should be so large.
"In my opinion, the school has a right to increase any amount of price in any place. That being said, I feel that it shouldn’t be necessary to go to such measures because the number of students at Franklin College grows every semester," junior Zach Morris said.
Taking into account the economic situation, some find the increases a little much.
"I think the increase is a bit steep over one year’s time, especially with today’s economic troubles," freshman Austin Mentzer said.
Students are encouraged to visit the financial aid office to file the necessary paperwork to process financial aid awards, and to consider the higher education tax credit from the federal government that is now available to qualified students.
