Aurora

The Rapid Rise of College Tuition

As all students at Holy Cross know, college tuition is extremely expensive, with the 2023-2024 tuition rising to $78,600 including standard housing and meal plan. This will be an increase from $74,980 this year. Tuition alone will be $60,050 for this coming school year. This is over 3.5 times what it was 30 years ago, more than double tuition from 20 years ago, and a 38% increase over the last 10 years. Seeing this steep jump in tuition each year is a frustrating proposition, not only for Holy Cross students but for those across the country as well. With the ongoing student debt crisis, currently totaling over $1.3 trillion, these tuition increases make college even more unaffordable for many students who are saddling debt that will have a crippling effect on them for decades. The average Holy Cross student graduates with $24,600 in debt, slightly below the national average of 25,921. With already sky-high tuition and record student debt numbers every year, these tuition increases can appear heartless and senseless. However, just as any industry is, colleges also have to deal with the many challenges that have made rising costs of anything and everything a constant in our society.

As all students at Holy Cross know, college tuition is extremely expensive, with the 2023-2024 tuition rising to $78,600 including standard housing and meal plan.

There are numerous factors that have played into the rising cost of higher education, not only for Holy Cross but around the country. Every college has hundreds of different input costs, and problems such as rising costs of labor or supply chain issues impact nearly every cost on the books. In addition to this, the top schools in America, a group Holy Cross considers itself to be a part of, are fighting for the same talent pool of top-tier students. This has led to an arms race between these premier institutions trying to lure the best and brightest of the next generation to their campus. For example, the new Prior Performing Arts Center cost a whopping $110 million. This is money that could have been directed to lowering tuition or added to the financial aid pool, however, the College viewed it as a better investment to be used to build new infrastructure. Colleges around the country are making efforts like this, making investments of unfathomable amounts to appeal to prospective students, in many cases ignoring the massive price tag that comes along. Another large factor in tuition increase, and perhaps drawing the most criticism, is rising administrative costs. Forbes has found that the salaries of administrators have been increasing exponentially in the last decade across the country. This in many cases has left professors with incremental raises below the inflation mark, and students with quickly raising tuition bills. In 2015, the Los Angeles Times found that the president of the University of California system proposed a 28% increase in tuition over 5 years, aimed to fund increased administrative hiring, salaries, and retirement costs. The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal found a similar phenomenon in the University of North Carolina system. When coupled together, these factors have played a large role in the huge increases to college tuition.

There are a plethora of reasons why college tuition has risen as rapidly as it has over the past few decades, and the source of blame is not clear-cut. It is up to each individual to decide to place the blame on more conventional sources, or instead to blame the bureaucrats at the helm of these institutions. While these problems are most evident on our own campus, it is important to remember that these issues are not unique to Holy Cross. This is a nationwide problem, and it is one without a simple solution.

By Brendan O’Brien