Tuition for on-campus classes at Boston University is $56,854 for a year. What does this number mean? What exactly is it paying for? Most importantly, during this pandemic, in which classes are being held online and many students are going through financial hardship and anxiety, why has this number not been changed?
As a non-profit organization, Boston University is required by federal law to file a Form 990, which is an informational tax form designed to provide an overview of the non-profit’s activities and financial information. According to its 2018 Form 990, it spent over five million dollars on compensation to trustees and key officials, five million dollars on “education services” not including labs, and eight million dollars on conferences, meetings, and conventions. It spent thirty million dollars on traveling, and over forty million on office expenses— the list goes on. The bulk of expenses seem to be rent costs and salaries, which is understandable. That all adds up to BU being a big university with a lot of employees.
But I don’t think BU is going to do much traveling or hold many conferences this year, to say the least. As all classes are being held online, I don’t think certain on-campus education services are taking place, nor do I think it’s possible for BU to require millions for office expenses. No one will be in their office.
In total, the unnecessary expenses I mentioned and others would be over $80 million that could be put towards something else — namely, paying students part of their tuition back. And to think, I didn’t even touch on the fact that BU had an endowment of more than $2 billion as of 2019, as reported by BU’s Investment Office.
The average cost of a bachelor’s degree from most online universities ranges from $38,496 to $60,593 for four years of education, according to U.S. News. I’m not going to pretend this is even remotely a possibility in our case. Online programs at Boston University charge from $490 to $925 per credit. That’s even significantly lower than the around $3,000 per credit being charged for full-time on-campus undergraduate students. We are technically attending Boston University online. It makes sense that our tuition rates should reflect that.
The main argument against colleges partially refunding their students’ tuition is that colleges simply can’t afford it. According to Seton Hall University professor Robert Kelchen, who studies the financial practices of universities, “[Colleges] don’t have the extra money to do that when they are still paying their employees.”
But as I’ve just calculated, there is ample money in the budget that won’t be used due to online classes and other quarantine measures that require many faculty and staff to work remotely. Employees’ salaries don’t have to be touched or brought up listlessly in this conversation.
Another argument against partially refunding students’ money is that it would negatively affect low-income students. According to Carrie Welton, a consultant for the non-profit Believe in Students, tuition discounts could threaten eligibility for financial aid or Pell Grants as the discount would count as income for the student.
This is a completely valid argument against discounting tuition. Given our current moment of global uncertainty, I wouldn’t want to mess with anyone’s chances at financial aid. I’m currently at a position where I wouldn’t be able to come here without it.
However, I think the fact that a tuition discount could threaten someone’s chances for a grant or financial aid speaks to how strange this whole business of college is. I understand that federal financial aid and grants are a whole other matter, but isn’t the university responsible for handing out its own aid packages? Couldn’t it adjust its policies to account for this discount, given the extraordinary circumstances we are currently living in?
Moreover, a study conducted by the New America Foundation in 2013 found that “hundreds of colleges expect the neediest students to pay an amount that is equal to or even more than their families’ yearly earnings.” This is happening while, according to a 2019 report conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, rich students receive more non-federal financial aid than all other income levels. The financial aid system is broken and skyrocketing tuition costs aren’t helping.
I just think expecting students to pay tuition in full for classes being held online is unreasonable, especially given that so many of us are unsure about whether we’ll be financially able to attend college in the fall.
Many of us are worried about our parents losing their jobs, or are ourselves unable to work due to social distancing measures or health conditions. This pandemic is incredibly destabilizing and I think colleges should do more for their students to make this time less terrifying.
I fully agree. I wonder how lower income students would find their financial aid affected if BU were to structure the tuition rebate in the form of a grant or something on our student account, much like they did for our housing refund. I have to believe there would be a way for students to still get some kind of money back for this – or even reducing the cost of attending next fall or the academic year even. I also wonder what BU is doing with the rest of the money that it isn’t spending on on-campus operations right now.
I do think BU has been generous in telling us that they would give us a housing refund right away when they informed us that we would be kicked out of our dorms and buildings, but I think that this is something similarly necessary to give back to students.