As always, here is a too long, didn't read summation: In 2009, the year I graduated, William and Mary's out of state tuition was ~$37,000. Since then, the cost of tuition has increased by almost 50%, with out of state tuition sitting at ~$55,000. The value of attending William and Mary can not have increased by that much, and I can not in my right mind continue to contribute to William and Mary.
Notes: Throughout this post, The College of William and Mary will be referred to as The College, W&M, William and Mary, or some other combination. I will refer to "tuition" as being the total cost of attending school, which includes room and board and other associated costs that colleges subject upon their students (or whoever is footing the bill for them to attend college).
A Case Study: The College of William and Mary
It is typically easiest to compare information when you have a frame of reference. Fortunately for me, my frame of reference provides a significant amount of information online. To supplement this post, I am using data from financial statements provided by the The College of William and Mary . Being a public institution, it publishes financial statements readily available on their website. You can find them here. William and Mary also publishes the history of tuition, where you can follow changes in tuition. That data is also readily available, and can be found here.
When I graduated high school, I was lucky enough to be accepted to William and Mary, and to have family support so that I would not have to worry about the cost of tuition. My last year of college, the out of state tuition rate was ~$37,000. At that time, that was the roughly the starting yearly salary that I earned as a first year teacher in Williamsburg, VA. In my mind, those numbers roughly made sense. Since then, the cost has increased to $55,000, while the starting salary has only increased to $41,000.
Since graduating, I have not given much thought to the cost of college. I had some debt from graduate school which I was making monthly payments on, and living a life of a teacher. My only direct connection to the cost of college was the phone calls I would receive asking for donations. Every few months, I would get a phone call from a student at the College asking for a donation, and usually I would acquiesce, on the condition that they tell me a joke. Usually the conversations went like this:
After this exchange, I would always make a small donation (I'm a teacher. These were small donations). In fact, I made these small donations with enough frequency to get put on a list to get contacted by someone from the Alumni Engagement Office, who sent someone out to meet me. We spoke for several hours about my thoughts about the College, the changing General Education Requirements, and how to get alumni more involved.
My interest in the cost of college has spiked recently, as I have a younger sister who is in high school, and went on a tour of colleges with my dad over her spring break. Upon their return, my dad spoke about the high cost of going to college. Some schools have estimated yearly costs nearing $70,000. Along with the conversations at home, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article, with a list of colleges that have had the biggest tuition increase in the past 10 years.
There are many possible answers to these questions, and few that would be satisfactory to all.
When I graduated high school, I was lucky enough to be accepted to William and Mary, and to have family support so that I would not have to worry about the cost of tuition. My last year of college, the out of state tuition rate was ~$37,000. At that time, that was the roughly the starting yearly salary that I earned as a first year teacher in Williamsburg, VA. In my mind, those numbers roughly made sense. Since then, the cost has increased to $55,000, while the starting salary has only increased to $41,000.
Since graduating, I have not given much thought to the cost of college. I had some debt from graduate school which I was making monthly payments on, and living a life of a teacher. My only direct connection to the cost of college was the phone calls I would receive asking for donations. Every few months, I would get a phone call from a student at the College asking for a donation, and usually I would acquiesce, on the condition that they tell me a joke. Usually the conversations went like this:
Student: "Hi, can I please speak with Mr. Savage?"
Me: "Yes, this is he."
Student: "Hi, my name is [blank] and I'm a student at William and Mary and we are raising money (When are they not?). Are you willing to donate?"
Me: "What dorm do you live in? And what are you studying?"
Student: "I'm studying [blank] and I live in [blank]."
Me: "Oh, that's awesome! I hope you are liking it. I loved being at William and Mary. Ok, I'll make you a deal. You are asking me for something, so to get it, you have to give me something. Tell me a joke. If you tell me a joke, I will make a donation. And to give you time to think, here is a joke. [Insert bad joke here: If you were to lose a body part, what body part would you lose? I would lose my spine. It's holding me back.]
Student: "Oh wow. Ok. Here is a joke: [insert equally bad joke]."
After this exchange, I would always make a small donation (I'm a teacher. These were small donations). In fact, I made these small donations with enough frequency to get put on a list to get contacted by someone from the Alumni Engagement Office, who sent someone out to meet me. We spoke for several hours about my thoughts about the College, the changing General Education Requirements, and how to get alumni more involved.
My interest in the cost of college has spiked recently, as I have a younger sister who is in high school, and went on a tour of colleges with my dad over her spring break. Upon their return, my dad spoke about the high cost of going to college. Some schools have estimated yearly costs nearing $70,000. Along with the conversations at home, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article, with a list of colleges that have had the biggest tuition increase in the past 10 years.
William and Mary came in at #19 out of 25 of colleges who had the largest percentage increase in tuition during the 2004-2014 time frame.
With these prompts, I decided to take a closer look at the published numbers from William and Mary. Fortunately for me, W&M is a public institution, and has their financial information available online. With an untrained eye, I didn't know where to start my search, but the documents are easy enough to navigate. The first place I looked was the general numbers.
Several revenue numbers immediately stick out:
- Revenues from 2009 to 2015 have increased by $111 million, from $344 million to $455 million. This is an increase of 32%.
- The categories that experienced biggest increases in revenue are from tuition (an increase of $58 million (from $100 million to $158 million)), and from auxiliary enterprises (an increase of $34 million (from $68.5 million to $92.5 million). Auxiliary enterprises include revenue from housing, meal plans, and other services provided to students. These sources of revenue have increased by 50%. During this time frame, enrollment grew by less than 10%.
- The value of the endowment has increased by $316 million, from $495 million to $811 million.
- Between 2012 and 2015, William and Mary collected more than $100 million in gifts. According to the financial statements, this is the first time in school history that those numbers have been achieved.
While those numbers show that the College is collecting more money, there was a source of income that did decrease over the timeframe of study: State Appropriations, which decreased by $6 million (from $75 million to $69 million). This will be discussed more later.
For the expenses, here are some numbers of note:
- Overall, expenses have increased by $80 million, from $333 million to $413 million. This is an increase of 24%.
- Spending on instruction increased by $17 million, from $95 million to $112 million. This is an increase of roughly 18%. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that outpaces inflation. This could be from an increase in the number of instructors, or an increase in salaries, or both.
- Institutional Support spending increased by $11 million, from $26 million to $37 million. Why is this bolded? Because this is spending on administrative positions, not directly related to instruction. More on this later.
- Student aid has more than tripled, from $10 million to more than $33 million. There are some questions about this as well, to be discussed below.
- Funding for research has been stagnant- there has been almost no change in the amount of money spent on research. To me, this is one of the most disappointing line items to read in the statements. How can the college increase spending in almost all areas but not increase support of research?
So far, without much analysis, it is clear to see that the College is operating at a profit. In 2009, the College brought in $11 million more than it spent, and again in 2015, it brought in $43 million more than it spent. While there is nothing wrong with W&M being profitable, a debate should be had about how profitable the college should be, and at what expense to the students and those footing the bill.
A decrease in state appropriations is almost always given as a reason to increase tuition. The current president of the College, President Reveley has said in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 that state appropriations were insufficient to meet current needs. As mentioned earlier, in 2009, W&M received $75 million in state appropriations. That made up 22.6% of all revenues, and covered 21.8% of expenses. For state appropriations to remain the same percentage of revenues and expenses, they would have to increase by 24%, to $93 million. This is asking the taxpayers in the state of Virginia to pay more, outpacing the rate of inflation by 140% (inflation from 2009 to 2015 was 10% according to the BLS).
The growth in "institutional support" spending is one of the fastest growing areas of spending at the College. From 2009 to 2015, spending on this line item increased by 42%, representing 14% of the total increase in expenses. Costs associated with institutional support are providing services to students, administrative positions, positions that are not directly tied to instruction, research, but may indirectly improve the college experience. The value added to the student is questionable, but conclusions can still be drawn from this data.
Because institutional support is a difficult line item to pick apart, one way of looking at it is to examine the number of employees working. If more services are being provided, then it is likely that there will need to be more employees working to provide them, and then those employees will need their own set of support employees. For every new dean, there needs to be an assistant dean, secretary, etc.
Unfortunately, I could not find data for the two timeframes for which I am scrutinizing, but I did find data for 2012 and 2014. The Richmond Times Dispatch has collected data of the salaries of Virginia public employees. A quick glance at the data compiled from the newspaper provides some startling information: In 2012, there were 1614 employees working for the College. This includes everything from housekeepers to professors to deans. In 2014, that number had ballooned to more than 2100. In a two year period, with almost negligible growth in student population, William and Mary had increased the number of employees by 30%.
For those timeframes, the student to professor ratio has essentially remained the same (it actually increased from 11-1 to 12-1), which means that the positions being added are not professors/lecturers. In fact, only 624 of those positions are full time professors. Why did the College go from having ~900 non full time professor employees to having 1500 of them?
This growth in non teaching positions is administrative bloat. William and Mary is not unique with this phenomenon. In the last 25 years, the number of administrative positions has doubled. In some university systems, it has gone up six fold. Enrollment has only increased ~15%. Some opinion pieces on this same subject are calling it the real reason that cost of college has increased so much. Other state university systems have been audited and they have been found to be hiring in all the wrong places.
(On a side note, this administrative bloat is not limited to higher education, but has also been occurring at the K-12 level as well.)
William and Mary's published tuition (tuition only) in 2015 is $20,000 for in-state students, and $40,000 for out of state students. These numbers are comical because the typical student pays way, way less. By taking the total amount collected in tuition, and dividing it by the total number of students, you can find the average paid by students. In 2015, the College collected $158 million in tuition and fees. Dividing that amongst the 8,500 students enrolled, the average tuition paid is $18,600.
Many questions arise with this information:
- How does the College come up with their published tuition number if the average is so much lower?
- Tuition currently makes up 51% of revenues, and in 2009, it made up 45% of revenues. Why the increase?
- What impact does the published tuition have on prospective students? Does it discourage them from applying? While applicant numbers have increased consistently, it is difficult to say what they could have been.
- What percentage of students pay full cost? And what is the median tuition paid?
There are many possible answers to these questions, and few that would be satisfactory to all.
From the time that I graduated in 2009 to 2015, spending on scholarships has increased to $33 million from $10 million. This is a remarkable increase, but I question the purpose. If the College doesn't increase the cost of tuition by 50%, then there is less of a need to increase aid to students. But by increasing aid, they can make statements about the percentages of students receiving aid. It is a never ending cycle.
Despite the increased revenue from students, auxiliary enterprises, gifts, and a huge increase in the value of their endowment, The College is constantly clamoring for more money. Most recently, William and Mary had the One Tribe One Day event, where they urged alumni to donate on one specific day.
The fundraising efforts on this day encouraged more than 10,000 people to donate, and the College raised over $2 million.
At the end of the day, I wonder if the question that William and Mary is asking its alumni, students and families is "How much can you give?", and if the only acceptable answer is "more, more, more."
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