It was the sigh of relief heard ’round the campus of Saint Louis University when the December message from SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., announced a 2 percent increase in undergraduate tuition (3 percent for law school and 2 percent for medical school) for the 2009-2010 school year.

Years past have seen tuition increases three or more times the size of the recently announced increase. This year, however, given the nation’s poor economic climate, SLU Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Bob Woodruff echoed the sentiments expressed by Biondi, saying that SLU had been paying close attention to the struggling economy.

Rather than waiting until SLU students complained about not being able to pay for a SLU education, Woodruff said that the decision to hold tuition increases to a minimum was the initiative of Biondi, the President’s Coordinating Council and the academic deans who all took part in weekly meetings last fall to reach a budget for the 2009-2010 school year.

“[The decision to keep tuition increases low] wasn’t reactive, it was forward looking,” he said. “We were trying to be responsible and proactive in our planning as we looked ahead toward the upcoming school year.”

The smaller increase will be made possible through a salary freeze for faculty and staff, as two-thirds of every dollar in the budget goes toward compensation, according to Woodruff.

Woodruff was careful to point out that the smaller increase will not result in cutting parts of a SLU education; rather, he stressed that the addition of several new majors and programs proves that SLU is continuing to move forward. (See “New programs for 2008-2009 announced” on Page 1 for more information.)

Considering the current state of the economy, faculty and staff were fairly unsurprised by the news of a salary freeze, Woodruff said.

“The reaction I’ve heard is that people understand that businesses need to do some belt-tightening [in these situations],” he said. “They may not like it, but they understand that it is a necessary part of what they need to do for the students to avoid passing on large tuition increases to them.”

The economy has taken its toll on SLU’s endowment fund as well; according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, it was at $880 million at the end of June 2008, yet was down to $685 million by the end of October 2008. Woodruff said the drop should not be a cause of concern to the SLU community and expressed confidence that the fund would eventually rise again with the markets, optimism which he attributed to SLU’s conservative spending and carefully diversified investments.

Student Government Association President Sam Howard was enthused about the smaller increase.

“A lot of it comes down to what’s reasonable,” she said. “Administrators want to increase tuition as much as people are willing to pay and what is right, but with the economy we’re in, it’s unrealistic to look at increasing more.”

As SGA president, Howard is a member of the PCC and sat in on the budget planning meetings. Though she was satisfied with a 2 percent increase, she expressed concern over how the budget is developed.

“We obviously know what we want to improve, but I feel like there could be a much stronger correlation between a [tuition] increase and the value students see,” she said.

Small increase or not, an increase is still an increase, and, undergraduate students can expect to pay roughly $600 more, a total of $30,940, in tuition next year. The economic climate has begun to take its toll on SLU students. Though Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Boyd Bradshaw did not report record numbers of financial aid pleas, he said he was aware of several instances in which a parent has lost a job or money on his or her investments, and students had to subsequently set up different payment plans to stay at SLU.

“We want SLU to be affordable,” Boyd said. “We do everything we can to assist [students in need].”

If students find themselves hurting for money, Boyd recommended both filing for the FAFSA (due by March 1 for the 2009-2010 school year), and calling The Office of Financial Aid to speak one-on-one with their financial aid counselor. In addition, SLU recently announced that for families with more than one child attending SLU concurrently, the Family Award will increase from $1,000 to $3,000 beginning in the 2009-2010 school year. Boyd said SLU is also working on ironing out the details of a kind of internal loan program, where students whose financial situation changes very suddenly can turn to if needed.

Despite the economic issues, Bradshaw said applications were on the rise for SLU, which he attributed to more aggressive recruitment, including the new “Be a Billiken” campaign, and also to “a collaborative effort” between SLU departments and faculty and staff members.

“The entire SLU community is really wanting to help us,” he said. “Everyone understands the economic situation and the impact it has on future students.”

In addition to tuition increases, housing and meal plans will increase 2 percent.