By: Jonathan Colson
Lydia Lockner, sophmore lives in Hart Hall and is in her third semester living on campus. Next semester, however, she will be making a move.
Lockner plans to spend the second half of the school year commuting from her house in Sulfur Springs- a thirty minute drive from Milligan’s campus. Lockner is moving home because of the rising tuition costs.
“I wish I didn’t have to move home” says Lockner. “logistically it just makes more sense to live on campus. But I can’t just make money appear so I have to do what I can to save myself from having to take out another student loan.”
Lockner says there will be positives and negatives about moving back home. Although she will get more time to spend with her family, she will not spend as much time with her friends or be a part of the same activities that she did while on campus.
Tuition at Milligan is still below the national average of a private four-year institution. The total cost increase at Milligan was 5.97% from Fall 2011 to 2012.
Since 2002 the cost of attending Milligan College has raised $13,850.
According to the Milligan College Tuition, Room, Board & Required Fees Proposal for academic year 2013-2014, the cost of attending Milligan can be expected to increase by $1,305 from $32,610 to $33,915. This total is not yet finalized, and Milligan’s administration and board hopes to keep costs as low as possible. Final rates are scheduled for release February 2013.
Many factors contribute to the rising cost of tuition. Some of these include increasing salaries for employees, donations from alumni and other sources such as churches, and how the American economy is doing overall.
According to Jacqui Steadman, vice president for business and finance, the main reason why tuition cost goes up every year is the costs of utilities, liability insurance, and health insurance. These contributors, Steadman said, cannot be controlled.
“I am committed to reducing tuition increase,” said Steadman. “Although rising tuition costs are inevitable, my goal is to keep tuition as low as possible.”
Although Mark Fox, vice president for student development, could not provide a number of how many students will be living at home instead of on campus next semester, he said the number of students leaving usually evens out the number of students arriving onto campus.
*Note from the editor – At the fault of the editor, a previous version of this article contained misleading information. That information is now correct. *
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