A 2.9 percent tuition increase was announced by President Mark McCoy at the monthly faculty meeting Monday.
McCoy helped start the faculty meeting by announcing the Board of Trustees had approved a tuition increase of almost three percent. Tuition increased by 3.9 percent during the 2016-2017 school year and 4.5 percent in the 2015-2016 school year
According to McCoy, selecting how much to increase tuition was almost like a balancing act. “The reason it is that number is that we do not want to make signals, so if we suddenly drop the tuition too much people will think things are going terribly at DePauw, if we raise it too much, people think college is too expensive, we’re not going to go,” McCoy said.
The tuition increase was lower than past years by design said McCoy.
Because the tuition raise is smaller than last year’s, students are not feeling as upset about it. “It’s actually not as bad, so it’s a lower increase than last year ” said sophomore, Kylee Rippy. “I understand that a lot of people are really upset about it, but we have to understand that every college increases their tuition every year and in a perfect world that wouldn’t happen, but we don’t live in that world.”
In addition, according to McCoy, the Board of Trustees approved the permanence of the art collection in Peeler, which the board was considering selling.
Despite McCoy’s announcement, the monthly meeting continued on schedule. The proposed changes to the Bachelor of Music degree, requiring an internship in a secondary school, and changes to the World Literature minor, which decrease the amount of requirements, were both approved during the session.
A potential new minor, Accounting and Finance for Decision Making, and a potential change in the process of choosing leaders for interdisciplinary major programs were both given an advanced notice at the meeting.
Summer plans for faculty involving the new Power, Privilege and Diversity (PPD) requirements were discussed. The Faculty Development Committee has created new initiatives to help the development of the PPD courses for the upcoming years.
“In an effort to help provide for the general education requirement of PPD, this year our initiative would be to provide nine summer stipends, specifically for the development of a new course that satisfies the PPD requirement or significant revision of existing courses,” said Susan Anthony, the chair of the faculty development committee.
Anthony also announced that there will be a kick-off event with a full-day workshop on PPD courses. Winners of the stipends are required to attend the workshop, but is open to all faculty.
The next DePauw University faculty meeting will take place in the UB ballroom on Monday, Dec. 5.
