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THE
March 31, 2023 Vol. 98, No. 14
Online at TheLink.Harding.edu
Searcy, Ark., 72149
“You can go to sit-down restaurants, and it’s cheaper than fast food places now, so this is just an echo effect of what’s happening in the marketplace,” Vice President of Enrollment Services Steve Lake said. CPI is always something that Harding considers when making its yearly budget,
“Even though tuition is going up, we expect the aid to continue to go up too,” Williams said. “We believe that in the wash, it’s not as big an impact to the students because aid is going up faster than tuition is going up.” Lake said the national government is increasing its financial aid amounts, and in addition, Harding’s endowment fund has been performing well the last few years so the University has had the ability to award larger scholarships. He also said compared to other private schools, Harding’s tuition ranks in the lower percentile. “Historically we’ve been in the lowest percentile of private schools in America,” Lake said. “We are an extremely low cost private school education.” From the 2019-2020 to 2022-2023 school years, Harding’s yearly tuition cost has increased by an average of $804, according to statistics provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. This upcoming year it will be increasing by an estimated $1,740, a 7.7% price increase. “Even though affordability is really important for us to do as a school, and a nation, there’s still a huge return on investment [in higher education], even with student debt,” Williams said. “We don’t want to minimize cost increases because we know those are painful for a large number of students, but at the same time … the investment is going to pay off.” The tuition cost for next school year is currently estimated at $24,240, but according to Hall, the budget, including the tuition price, won’t be approved by Harding’s board until the first week of May.
University to increase tuition costs EMMA JONES editor-in-chief
The University’s estimated tuition prices for the 2023-24 school year are being raised by 7.7%, reflecting a national increase in expenses due to inflation. University President Mike Williams said tuition prices increase slightly each year but that the upcoming price spike is higher than normal due to drastic percentage increases in the consumer price index (CPI) over the last few years. The CPI, as defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (US BLS), represents changes in the prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households. Prices used to calculate the CPI are collected in urban areas around the country, as well as various retail and service establishments. “For the last five years, the net tuition has actually stayed flat,” Williams said. “When things are relatively stable, you can pull that off sometimes … but the same dollars aren’t the same dollars as they were before, so this is a little bit of a catch up with that.” Net tuition refers to the actual cost needed to cover education expenses, which is determined by subtracting grants and scholarships from an institution’s cost of attendance. According to the US BLS, the CPI rose 2.3% from 2018 to 2019, and from 2019 to 2020 it rose 1.4%. The following year, 2020 to 2021, the CPI rose 7%, the largest yearly percent change since 1981. From 2021 to 2022 it rose 7.5%. CPI is typically determined on a December to December basis, but from February 2022 to February 2023 it has increased 6%, with food prices specifically increasing 9.5%.
Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer Tammy Hall said. “That’s just a big factor in it,” Hall said. “You think about a service organization — what’s the biggest expense? People … so we want to take care of our people.” Williams said though tuition prices are rising, financial aid awards will also be increasing.
Comparing private Christian university tuition costs*
$24,240
$24,550
$25,000
$38,824
$42,380 *as estimated for the 2023-24 school year Graphic by EMMA JONES
Student Life announces change in privileged housing
MAGGIE SAMPLES lifestyle editor Student Life announced a change to privileged housing on campus on March 14 in response to the student satisfaction survey that was administered last semester. An email sent to female undergraduate students from the Office of Residence Life said the decision had been made for the 2023-24 school year to allow all of the Legacy Park Apartments to become rental apartments for off campus housing, while Shores Hall will become “upperclassmen housing by application,” and will not have curfew or require a meal plan. Currently, Shores Hall is an upperclassmen women’s dorm. Privileged housing, according to the Residence Life Handbook, is available for students who are 20 years of age and have either 70 completed credit hours, are a thirdyear student with 50-59 credit hours, or are 21 years old with 27 credit hours. Currently, privileged housing options include some
Legacy Park Apartments for women and Cone Hall for men. Qualifications to apply to live in Shores Hall include being a female student who will be 20 by Aug. 31 and will have completed 70 or more hours by the end of the preceding spring semester. Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Zach Neal said the change originated with the administration intentionally listening to student voices and areas of dissatisfaction. “Every year, we give consideration to all of our policies, but I feel the surveys and focus groups indicate a very intentional campuswide approach to listening to feedback,” Neal said. “The specific topic at hand had the goal of increasing the number of students who had the opportunity to live where there is no curfew or required meal plan.” Neal said the change was well thought out and he understands it does not impact the whole student body, but he considers the change to be important for individual students. “We are a residential campus, so there
is an understanding that students will live on campus for the majority of their time at [Harding], allowing for an organic closeness,” Neal said. According to Neal, Student Life intends to make changes and inform the student body, rather than waiting to inform in bulk about changes being made. There was urgency with the decision about Shores because of the fall housing selection process. The Student Life deans and Residence Life staff have continued to have conversations with students and combine the insight of the administration with the opinions of the students affected. Neal said the next step in this process is to create student focus groups and hear the students’ ideas for improving Residence Life. “We continue to evaluate our processes and expectations with the end goal of creating more opportunities for individual development while maintaining an emphasis on community and relationships,” Neal said. Senior Lena Dallas said she was concerned about not being able to bring her friends with
fewer hours with her to Shores Hall. Dallas said she thought the decision would push more people to live off-campus than before. “I think I am for it,” Dallas said. “But I wish it was more like a case by case situation.” Senior Camille Smith said she felt the change was overdue, but exciting for future upperclassmen. “I wasn’t able to live in privileged housing for the fall semester of my senior year because [Legacy] was full,” Smith said. “It was not ideal to be a senior living in the regular on campus housing because many of my other friends were living in the privileged housing, so it was slightly disappointing to see them with a little more freedom and independence that privileged housing offers and not be able to experience that as well.” The email from Residence Life said Legacy had 137 beds available for privileged housing this semester, while transitioning to Shores will allow for 198 beds. Those who are interested and qualify to live in privileged housing can apply through Pipeline under the “Housing” tab. Photo by BALAZS BALASSA
The main entrance of Shores Hall, pictured on March 28. The women’s dorm was approved to be privileged housing for the 2023-24 school year, while Legacy Apartments will become rentals for off-campus housing instead of privileged housing.