TO:      All Trinity Students

FR:       President Patricia McGuire

RE:       Tuition Rates for 2006-2007

March 18, 2006

At their meeting on February 3, 2006, Trinity’s Board of Trustees established tuition and fee prices for 2006-2007.  In making their tuition decision, the Trustees carefully weighed the financial needs of our students alongside the inevitable increases we will experience in faculty salaries, technology and maintenance costs, and other goods and services that are necessary to support Trinity’s educational enterprise.

The new tuition and fee schedule is presented in the box on the bottom of this page.  The general tuition increase is 3%.  Full-time undergraduate tuition in the College of Arts and Science will be $17,715.  Some rates will have no increase, including the per credit hour fee in the School of Professional Studies undergraduate program, which will remain at $465 per credit hour.  Credit hour rates for all graduate programs will increase modestly.

Trinity’s tuition and fees remain significantly lower than other private colleges and universities in the Washington region and around the nation; several other local full-time tuition prices exceed $30,000, and at some well known local universities, the total cost of attendance now exceeds $40,000 per year.  Nationally, the tuition price at four-year private institutions like Trinity now averages more than $21,000, well above Trinity’s tuition.  National tuition price increases have been above 5% while Trinity tries to keep tuition growth to inflation, about 3%.  Additionally, Trinity is returns more than $3.5 million to students in the form of institutional grants and scholarships.

Why do we have to raise tuition each year?  Certain operating costs rise annually — electricity, natural gas, water and other utilities; property and liability insurance; legal and audit fees; health insurance for our employees; salaries and other benefits for our faculty and staff, which are modest by any comparison to local salaries.  Vendors who provide our food service, security, bookstore and facilities management raise their raises each year as well.  3% just minimally helps Trinity to keep up with these increases; Trinity does not make a profit on the tuition increase.

Additionally, each year Trinity makes improvements that require certain investments.  In just the last year, we’ve had major HVAC upgrades in several buildings along with major roof repairs, boiler and chiller upgrades, and electrical improvements.  Technology improvements like IQ Web are also expensive but important.  So, while the tuition increase is modest, we do our best to return the value to students in the form of improvements in personnel and infrastructure.

As always, I am happy to discuss Trinity’s tuition price, costs and budget with you.  Thank you for your continuing participation in Trinity’s important educational mission.

Tuition and Fees, 2006-2007