In a letter informing parents of the increase, Interim President John Lott Brown cites costs of inflation, "paying competitive salaries" and "maintaining top-notch faculty," "maintaining well-equipped and up-to-date laboratories," increasing financial aid requirements estimated at more than $13 million for the coming school year, and "making the kinds of improvements and innovations that will assure that WPI remains an outstanding and distinctive technological university," as the reasons for the decision. In addition to the 6.85%, the Trustees also approved an average of a 5% increase in room and board fees that would raise those costs $270 to about $5630.
President Brown also noted that WPI has had "an average of only a 4.2% increase in tuition per year over the past five years." This is true, but Brown does not mention that WPI froze tuition for one year which brings the average down considerably. Averaging the numbers just for the past three years shows figures closer to 4.6% per year, and the 1995-1996 increase will move the 4 year average to over 5% per year.
No matter which way you add the numbers up, WPI is still in the middle range compared to other members of the Association of Independent Technological Universities (AITU), including MIT, RPI, IIT, Clarkson, Carnegie-Mellon, and Harvey Mudd. Basing estimates on the 1994-1995 tuition and fees, room, and board, WPI would fall almost exactly in the middle if all the other members were to have an increase of a similar amount and would move higher on the cost scale if other institutions check in with smaller increases.
WPI had one of the lowest percent increases for the 1994-1995 school year, with the AITU average being near 5.5% while ours was only 5%, and has been near or below average for the last three years. We have been due for a large jump to get back into the flow of things, and the $3 million dollar increase (2700+ students multiplied by $1100 per student) this should provide, before financial aid is figured in, will help ease budgeting constraints.
If this large amount is a one-time thing, then the effects are not all that devastating, especially now that the economy is springing back. Keeping near the average in the future to allow for cost-of-living-adjustments and increases in the supplies necessary to maintain the institute - fees that all competitors face - should not hurt WPI. In this case, nearly 7% is not unreasonable. It's just to get us back on track.
But if the Trustees are short-sighted and believe that this kind of increase can occur every year, boosting the costs for on-campus students at an increasing amount for every year in attendance they are wrong. For example, a 6% average increase each year for the next 3 school years means the class of 1998 would pay yearly tuition and fees of $19,127, an increase of over $3000 from this year's price. Compare this to the $1900 increase that the class of 1995 has faced. And this is not including room and board and other supply increases. Parents and students will not look at that kind of increase as good economics.
This just would not add up to a good way to attract students.