In an open meeting on campus Wednesday, the Board of Visitors heard arguments in favor of aggressively raising tuition next year. Unfortunately, this option must be taken. Little else can now be done without irreparably hobbling the College of William and Mary, and almost certainly other steps — like hiring freezes and furloughs — will also have to be taken.
When the BOV does finalize the details of these increases, in-state students should, for once, bear a disproportionately large portion of the burden. It has become clear that only if Virginian constituents feel a squeeze will Virginian politicians be forced to alter their policy of using this state’s system of higher education as a fiscal whipping boy.
Generally speaking, the deal a public university makes with its state is that the school will offer in-state students a superior educational product for a reduced cost if the state covers the difference using tax dollars. Under this arrangement, Virginia has fostered one of the most effective systems of higher education in the nation, and it is now possible for a Virginia resident to obtain an Ivy-caliber education for a mere fraction of the cost. This is special, and we should fight to preserve it.
However, over the last few decades, the commonwealth has reneged on its end of the bargain. Everytime there is a fiscal emergency — which are sometimes precipitated by short-sighted politicking, like when the gas tax was repealed — higher education is the first to take the hit. Then, in times of prosperity, reinstating our cut funding quickly slips from the General Assembly’s list of priorities.
Consider the long view: In 1980, Virginia covered 42.8 percent of our operating costs. The latest round of cuts reduced the state’s contribution to such costs to about 13.7 percent. The University of Virginia is being funded at a much lower rate — around 6 percent — and it is likely we are heading in the same direction.
Over the same period, the tuition of out-of-state students has risen dramatically faster than that of in-state students. Virginians are now paying three times as much as they would have in 1985, while their out-of-state counterparts pay five times as much as they would have in that time period. In absolute figures, the difference between what each group pays is staggering: $20,000 annually. In total, this one-third of our student body pays nearly two thirds of the school’s revenue from tuition.
While farming budget problems out to students from other states is the politically safe option to keep costs down for resident students, the true cost of the commonwealth’s decision to underfund its schools is being completely hidden from its constituents in this process. In the long term, this means that costs will only continue to rise for everyone, as the GA will continue to be able to slash our funding with impunity.
The College is in a difficult position here. Unquestionably, one of its great assets is its ability to be both affordable and great, and preserving the basic affordability of this institution is an essential long-term goal for the College. But under the GA’s current policy, our ability to remain an institution that is accessible to all is threatened.
Going forward, political pressure will be our only tool to reverse this trend. That pressure will never build as long as Virginia residents are shielded from the costs of their elected leaders’ decisions. They must pay now, or the College will be forced to pay in the long run.
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10 Comments
A couple things: The
A couple things:
The comment prior to this one frames the problem perfectly; William and Mary continues, for the time being, to attract top talent because it offers very, very good education at an excellent value. In the past where the College could not quite compete with Ivy League peers in academics, it could undercut the price year in and year out. And that’s what brought the out-of-staters. That’s what brought me. There was no way to justify the University of Chicago’s $45k price tag when William and Mary could offer a similar education for a third less. We are seeing now, though, that this no longer holds true. The quality of the product has suffered and the price has increased. It is difficult anymore to call the College a “best value.” For both in- and out-of-staters, it’s now just a pretty good deal.
So that’s the problem, but I’m not convinced that the stance you take in this editorial is the solution. If the college sells itself on value, then what to make of a position that calls for mounting the hardship against the College’s core constituency, the taxpayers who support it? To be sure, artificial restrictions on in-state tuition means that we’ll never precisely see what in-staters are willing to pay for a William and Mary education before they start choosing other options, but we can more or less assume that demand for the College’s services is inversely related to the price charged for them. And among the best and brightest students in the commonwealth, that demand is probably even more elastic because they’ll have more options and better scholarships offered to them.
That makes this increase bit really is quite the pickle. The College’s academic reputation relies as much on its students as it does on its faculty, classroom resources, and course offerings. If increasing tuition reduces applicants and standards drop, then WM will lose ground on its all-important selectivity factor. There’s just a lot of doom and gloom involved, isn’t?
Apologies for the critique without offering a constructive alternative. That’s for, you know, policymakers in the GA or something.
I am an alum (‘83) who
I am an alum (‘83) who was in-state as a student but am also a parent of a current out-of-state student. Much as Virginia residents may not like it, the exploding co st of higher education everywhere can no longer be ignored. It is no longer possible to be shielded from the reality of sky-high costs by raising disproportionally out-of-state tuition. When my son chose to attend W&M, the out-of-state cost (tuition & fees and room & board) was about $29K. It is now over $42K, a 45% increase. As alumni parents, we were proud and thrilled that he wanted to go to W&M and that W&M wanted him, and the $29K (which we knew would go up but we never thought it would go up this much) seemed doable and worth it. Not so anymore. Our daughter did apply to W&M and was accepted, but it was not really an option as it doesn’t really have the right program for her. She is at a selective private school in the Northeast that offered enough aid to make it about the same cost as W&M (plus it is very well-regarded in her desired area of study). It disappoints me to have to say this but I did not want her going to W&M.
The argument that W&M was a viable option to the Ivies and the other top private universities and had the added benefit of being significantly less expensive is no longer true. With the endowments and more generous aid offered by most of those other top universities, William & Mary no longer has a cost advantage, and for some students actually is more expensive. As the highest-calibre out-of-state students start dropping W&M off their list (in favor of top privates such as the Ivies, Duke, Wake Forest, Emory, etc. ) William and Mary’s reputation and cache will drop. It will not be the bargain top-tier school it has been, but will become a very expensive second-tier school. The in-state students, even if their costs remain artificially contained, will find that it is not the top-tier institution that they have come to take for granted.
I certainly can understand the Virginia residents’ want to keep W&M (& UVa, Tech) tuition low, but it is no longer possible to do that by increasing out-of-state tuition. The state’s reneging on its part of the bargain has forced the issue. The 800 lb. gorilla can no longer be ignored.
Virginia could legalize
Virginia could legalize marijuana, tax it, use the revenue for education. Problem solved.
Once again, the rich want
Once again, the rich want to penalize the poor.
I have generally been
I have generally been against the significant raising of in state tuition, but I agree with the opinion voiced here that it has come to a point where the status quo is unacceptable. The state cannot keep decreasing the funds it gives to its universities and expect instate tuition to remain low. The state is getting all of the reward for having top tier universities but not providing their share of the cost.
The thought I had in my mind as I was reading this is the same as was brought up in the first response. We should get together with UVA and jointly bump up the instate tuition. And press releases should be put out explaining the logic behind the decision, and the lack of state funding has put the universities in this situation.
Regarding that some people can only attend because it is such a bargain now… well, there are lots of other state universities in Virginia that would be cheaper, and there is also the option of going to community college for 2 years while saving money, and setting yourself up for a guaranteed acceptance into UVA or W&M.
Does anyone know what happened to the charter initiative that was planned under Timmy J? It was a joint plan with UVA and Tech, but I haven’t heard anything about it recently…
This sounds like a great
This sounds like a great plan…except for those in-state students who can only (and barely) afford college because of the reduced tuition. Do you recommend increasing financial aid along with the ticket price, or are people without means to pay also required to “pay up”?
SPEAK WITH YOUR VOTES!
SPEAK WITH YOUR VOTES! In-state students and their families, friends, and neighbors must ELECT General Assembly members who will SUPPORT and FIGHT for William & Mary and Virginia higher education. Anyone from Fairfax County’s 42nd district?? There’s actually a former Student Assembly president running to be your delegate, Greg Werkheiser, ’96. GET HIM ELECTED! www.gregfordelegate.com
From Greg Werkheiser’s
From Greg Werkheiser’s “Increasing Access to Higher Ed” section: there is too little room for Virginia students in our universities.
It hardly looks like he will support the much-needed increase in quality that Virginia universities so desperately need. His site says he will reject budget cuts for primary and secondary education, but his funding idea for higher education includes only an expanded GI bill. A worthy cause, to be sure, but hardly the vast influx of funding necessary across the board to salvage the university system.
80% percent in-state.
80% percent in-state. That’s what Delegate Dave Albo (the man Werkheiser is running against) proposed in last year’s session of the General Assembly. Albo AUTHORED HB 1696, which would have REQUIRED W&M to increase the number of in-state students to 80%. Dave Albo, Timothy Hugo, Clifford Athey and any other Delegate who wants to FORCE VA schools to admit more in-state students SHOULD NOT BE KEPT IN OFFICE. THAT’S why Fairfax County’s 42nd District needs to ELECT GREG WERKHEISER, ’96, THIS NOVEMBER. www.gregfordelegate.com
Your editorial is well
Your editorial is well thought out and addresses the problems facing our great university. The state support for operating funds will continue to dwindle, eventually close to zero. The money provided for new buildings is also a double-edged sword; while the dollars for
urgently needed new buildings we get from the state is substantial, the day the new building opens its operation cost is supported 100%
by the College. Private support for some of our newer buildings, too, (The Miller School of Business, The Laycock Football Center. the new Career Development structure under construction) has substantially increased through major gifts, making state construction funding less important.
Raising the in-state tuition to be more in line with the out-of-state bill is long overdue and, as you correctly point out, may possibly
provide a wake-up call to our state politicians that you can’t constantly go to the higher education well to cut costs every time there’s a financial shortfall. The most effective way to do this is for the three major state bellweather universities (W&M, UVA, Va Tech) to do this simultaneously, providing a major message to state legislators.
Eventually, as many believe, William & Mary and the University of Virginia (and, possibly, Virginia Tech) will establish some sort of semi-autonomous relationship with the state.
Pete Kalison ’57