College students never cease to be surprised at the yearly increases in the cost of tuition, persistently asking, “Where is all my money going?” Contrary to what many think, no black hole or vacuum consumes students’ money. There are many reasons for the increases in tuition, and Corban College is not exempt from the constant rise of prices and the effects it has on students.
“It’s hard because we can’t necessarily see tangible changes and improvements,” says junior Rachel Jeffers. “All we see are the numbers going up and our finances suffering.”
Jeffers, like many others, has multiple loans and anticipates it taking a long time to pay off her debts. But she, like many others, believes the school is worth it and plans to stay at Corban until she graduates.
Next year, tuition at Corban will be increased by $1,000, and room and board will go up $197. This is a 3.9% overall increase. As these costs go up, administration ensures that its scholarships increase as well.
President Reno Hoff describes many reasons the college must raise the price for students.
“Our energy, utility, food, repair, health care costs continue to increase,” he says. “We also need to increase salaries for our dedicated faculty, staff and students employees.”
He explains that schools have no control over the constant rise in cost for things like energy, utilities and food, all depending on the area they are located.
“We have to meet all these expenses plus make continual improvement to better serve our students. This does cause a dilemma for us because we want to keep the costs down as much as possible for the students and yet provide better services” says Hoff.
Corban is also making improvements internally, which go above and beyond just the expected increases in the cost of living. The school will become a university officially on May 1, 2010. This will allegedly benefit graduates and has already drawn the attention of “US News & World Report,” which has named Corban one of the top ten schools in the West for the last eight consecutive years.
Kacie Woosley, a senior, is one of many who is excited to graduate under the new title.
“I think that the shift in the name for Corban is an exciting change. It shows that we are continuing to build our academics,” Woosley said.
Along with its high ranking, Corban retains a lower cost than many surrounding schools.
After a financial aid consulting firm evaluated Corban, “They concluded that not only are we lower in cost and we are ranked academically on a par or higher in some cases with these institutions,” Hoff says.
Corban cannot escape the obvious increase in costs of living in Oregon, but administration says it is doing its best to aid Corban students.