This past week the Sage Colleges Board of Trustees
adopted the Sage Price Promise, which guarantees entering new students that undergraduate
tuition will not increase for the next four years.
There were a number of reasons Sage did this, all of them
worth highlighting in this period of great concern about higher education
affordability.
· Rising cost: the National Center for Education Statistics
has shown that in today’s dollars the price of a college education has tripled
in one generation.
· Consumer confusion:
a recent study by the College Board
showed that most families don’t understand the difference between “sticker price”
and their actual cost, after financial aid.
The mood seems to be “confused at best.”
Last year colleges launched an educational tool called the Net Price
Calculator but less than 10% have used it.
More needs to be done.
· Making sacrifices: delivering quality education is expensive and
labor-intensive but all colleges have room to trim costs that have driven their
overhead expenses up which has led to the price-tripling families experienced.
· Social
good: college is not for everyone,
but access to college for those who wish it should be attainable for the
personal and community benefits higher education can bring. Seen as an investment, everyone has a stake
and everyone – from students to parents to government – plays a part. Within reason, student debt is not a bad thing;
it is “skin in the game.”
We at Sage believe this will be good for our families and
for our college. Having held tuition and
fees flat for the past four years and realized a 25% enrollment growth – with corresponding
increases in revenue that support qualitative improvements to students’ experience
– we see little risk and much reward.
As educators and parents ourselves, we look beyond our
campus and share the concerns that seemingly dominate the media and political
dialogue: a college education has never been more important, yet concerns about
paying for a college education have never been more strident. An acquaintance from Chicago wrote me
yesterday and said “Dan - saw your news today about the tuition freeze. I and many other parents applaud your effort.”
This will be good for Sage and, we hope, be a
challenge and inspiration for other colleges.
