By Leah Wilkinson and Katelyn Norris
Bellarmine students can expect to see a tuition increase of $1,450 this fall.
Bellarmine University President Dr. Susan Donovan sent an email Feb. 9 to notify the Bellarmine community of the increase for the 2021-2022 school year.
In the email, Donovan emphasized the university’s commitment to listening to students’ feedback from the fall 2020 semester in regards to both creating safe classroom environments and effective online learning systems in the wake of Covid-19.
“Why raise the cost?” first-year student Erin Battenfield said. “I think it is going to harm more people than it is going to benefit. I get that the university is struggling more with Covid right now, but so is everyone else.“
Bellarmine’s Student Government Association posted a statement regarding the increase on its Instagram page, which stated:
“To Bellarmine Students,
On behalf of the Student Government Association, we understand your frustration and hear your worries regarding the newly released tuition increase. We have spoken to university staff and faculty regarding your concerns. We would like to make it known we, as an assembly, do not support this initiative.
For the time being, the tuition increase is part of a larger institutional move in accordance with the new strategic plan. Due to this, there is nothing more we can do as student leaders.
In the future, we will continue to listen and advocate for our student body.”
Donovan also announced what she referred to as “a major initiative for next academic year that will benefit all undergraduate and graduate students.” The university has partnered with Follett Higher Education Group — Bellarmine’s campus bookstore vendor — to reduce the cost of textbooks and other educational materials.
Starting this fall, all textbooks and other course materials will be included in the cost of tuition via the new Bellarmine OnCourse program.
“I do feel that it is good to get us our books, but overall, I think it is just getting the university more money that they were losing during this period,” junior Benjamin Seifferlein said. “I do feel it is quite insensitive of them to implement this now during a pandemic. I feel as though they could wait a year or even a few before rolling [Bellarmine OnCourse] out.”
Dr. Mike Marshall, Bellarmine’s vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications, said approximately half of the tuition increase is tied to the addition of textbooks.
“The other roughly half or so is tied to our ability to continue to deliver a distinctive, transformative student experience,” Marshall said. “And so that’s just based on us meeting our budgetary needs, both in terms of academic and the administrative needs in support services we provide to students.”
According to Bob Zimlich, vice president for administration and finance, tuition increases at Bellarmine have been lower in recent years.
“Since Dr. Donovan has been President, tuition increases have been the smallest percentages and actual dollar amounts in the last 40 years,” Zimlich said.
The chart below shows the increases of the past decade.
Marshall said the decision to raise tuition is rooted in three areas and is guided by the university’s strategic plan.
Two of the goals include enhancing students’ access and affordability.
“Our goal is giving students access on day one,” Marshall said. “There is a cost that’s associated with it, and one of the things we looked at was the average cost that students were paying for textbooks at Bellarmine, which was much higher than the price point we were able to get by moving forward with Bellarmine OnCourse.”
Marshall said the goal is for students to have textbooks included as direct costs.
“We tried to add [textbooks] to tuition so students could see it as a direct cost so they could leverage their aid in ways they were not necessarily able to before when it was an indirect cost,” Marshall said.
Battenfield said although it may be nice for some students to have their course materials as direct costs, the decision does not benefit her.
“While it is nice to have books being included in the cost of tuition, but I think that is hard to set it as the bar for what tuition should be at BU,” Battenfield said. “My books did not cost that much so ultimately, I would be paying more for no reason.”
Seifferlein said he also has his doubts about the addition of Bellarmine OnCourse.
“I do think it will hurt a greater amount of campus than it will help,” Seifferlein said.
Marshall said students who may not need to purchase textbooks for certain courses will still be expected to pay the full increase in tuition.
“The nuances there are certainly something that academic affairs is working through in terms of working with the faculty,” Marshall said. “I don’t know the specifics of the students who typically may not [be required] to have those textbooks and what that process will look like.”
Marshall said some of the increase is also due to pandemic response.
“Now, what’s also tied to [the increase] is there are some additional unforeseen costs that we’ve had due to the pandemic — in order to create a safe and healthy learning environment — and so there are additional costs there,” Marshall said.
Marshall said CARES funding through the federal government has helped prevent the university from charging more than the $1,450 increase.
“[CARES funding is] helping to provide students with direct payments and provide some of the emergency funding as well for students, but also there’s an institutional portion that’s there to help us meet the budgetary needs as well,” Marshall said.
Marshall said the increase in tuition would not affect the Public Price Promise the university announced in the fall, which allows for incoming first-year residential students with a 3.6 GPA or greater to pay the same price for direct costs (tuition, comprehensive fees, room and board) as they would at their state’s flagship university.
Marshall also said for the last two school years, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the average annual tuition and fee increases have been 3.15% and 2.80% at the private institutions against which Bellarmine is benchmarked.
Marshall also provided a list of benchmark institutions courtesy of Bellarmine’s Division of Administration and Finance (see below). This data showcases the percentage of increase in tuition, fees, room and board for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years.
