In the last couple years, inflation greatly impacted businesses, institutions, and people. Unfortunately, Viterbo University has not escaped this. Students may have felt surprised, or even frustrated to see that their tuition increased this semester. Although this might seem like Viterbo is not aware of the impact the current economy has on students, this is far from the case.
“These conversations about increasing tuition, no one wants to do that,” says the Vice President of Finance and Administration of Viterbo, Amy Schmidt. “All of our students, their rents are going up, their food is going up, their heating bills are going up. So we are cognizant of that.”
So why the increase? Many factors determine tuition each semester, and they all concern Viterbo students’ experience on campus. Schmidt explains that tuition is determined by Viterbo’s Board of Trustees, but the recommendation for tuition comes from the administration, which looks at all the components of the tuition costs.
First, overall costs and keeping up with them are examined. As Schmidt says, “Tuition and fees are really about 90% of our total revenue, so we do have to be careful about tuition; as costs increase, we have to make sure we are keeping up with that.”
Then, the administration researches and compares tuition at Viterbo to that of other private universities, particularly in Wisconsin. When doing this, the administration discovered that Viterbo, despite past increases, still ranked the fourth lowest out of 30 private Wisconsin universities. This became an important factor in deciding to raise tuition.
Employee wages and other benefits also play a factor in deciding the tuition. Because of inflation in the economy, the necessity for expanding salaries and keeping up with healthcare has risen. More importantly, however, Schmidt points out that “we want to keep talented staff and faculty,” which altogether is a benefit for students.
The final factor that helps to figure out tuition is the needs of students. Schmidt states that technology is becoming more and more of a requirement in learning, so the administration wants to make sure they have the proper equipment. Further, adding and promoting new programs and majors, like the newly instituted speech pathology program, is also included in tuition.
More importantly, Viterbo wants to make sure that students are not only academically supported, but also mentally and socially supported. This is making sure budgeting tuition to support Residence Life, and the free mental health services on campus is so important. As Schmidt states, “It’s a huge benefit, but it’s also a huge need for our students, so those are things we want to make sure we can provide.”
Overall, even though tuition is increasing, the administration wants to make sure that students are taken care of and can be supported. Schmidt encourages students to seek out scholarships provided by donors and get the financial aid they deserve. In closing, Schmidt says, “There’s a lot of thought into [tuition], and there’s a lot of what else we can do [for support].”
