A new fundraising effort meant to encourage students to donate to St. Lawrence is also raising questions about the overall cost of attending college. Some students feel that paying the comprehensive fee should be enough, but school officials say otherwise.
The fundraising effort, called the 160 Hour Challenge, is a week-long attempt to get 3,000 donors. Students are encouraged to donate, as well as alumni and parents.
“I don’t understand why they want us to donate. Obviously we pay tuition already, so asking us to donate seems unfair,” said Gabe Cole ‘18. “Being asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year should be enough.”
Other students questioned why the university needed more money. “How can they need more money? Students already pay so much to come to school here,” said a student involved in the student-alumni council who wished to remain anonymous. “They should stop raising the cost of coming here. Next year, the fee will have gone up by $5,000 since my first year here.”
The cost of attending St. Lawrence is slated to rise to $64,390 by fall of 2016. This marks a 3.6 percent increase from the current cost of $62,150. School officials say that the rising comprehensive fee reflects the increasing cost of operating the school.
“In the world of business, there are a lot of prices we have to track,” said Joe Manory, Vice President for Finance and Treasurer at St. Lawrence University. He pointed out that running a school is not cheap.
Statistics provided by the Business Office showed that expenses totaled over $120.4 million in the fiscal year of 2016. The two biggest sources of expense were academic affairs and facilities, which required nearly $40 million and $13.216 million respectively.
Around 60 percent of expenditures is on compensation, such as paying faculty and administrators, noted Manory. This means that costs are inherently going up since professors get raises, resulting in students having to pay more.
“The comprehensive fee only covers 79.5 percent of the total cost per student,” he said. Since it costs $78,144 per student, the school needs other sources of revenue. Donations make up a sizeable source of revenue.
In the fiscal year 2016, donations accounted for $11,693,000 in revenue, or 10 percent of the total revenue. However, even with donations and an expensive tuition, the school had more expenses than revenue. For 2016, revenue is about $2 million below expenses, making donations even more important to the school.
A representative for the 160 Hour Challenge reiterated the importance of donations to St. Lawrence University. “Giving back is important, a lot of students could not come here without donations,” said Anne Clements, the Assistant Director of Annual Giving. And since only 27 percent of alumni actually donate to St. Lawrence, it is important to encourage more students to donate, she continued.
The 160 Hour Challenge has “less to do with the amount of money [donated] and more to do with the act of doing it,” said Clements. “When you give as a student, you’re more likely to give as an alum.” She pointed out that students could choose where their donations went to. For example, a person interested in the sciences could request their donation be allocated there.
Some students support the 160 Hour Challenge. “St. Lawrence may be expensive but the school does a lot to make it affordable to come here. I am definitely fine donating a dollar or two to help out,” said Jackson Leahy ‘18. “Donations make a lot possible, just look at the tags around campus showing what it pays for.”
The challenge marks the university’s 160th birthday. It began on April 7 and will end by midnight, April 14. As of Tuesday, April 12, a total of 1,030 people had donated. Students interested in learning more about the challenge or who wish to donate can visit the website alumni.stlawu.edu/160hours.