Money is something we all not only want, but need. It allows us to buy the necessary items we need to get through everyday life–that $7 iced caramel latte for example. However, as you already know, we are often forced to spend our money on frivolous things like rent, so that we don’t get thrown out on the streets.
Aside from the already expensive Chipotle we have to waste our money on to survive our undergraduate educations, us students also have to pay for the tuition that we so willingly stay up till 3 a.m. for. However, our splurging budget is becoming small to make way for the increasing costs to attend Southwestern.
I have attached a screenshot of all of the important costs from the academic years of 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026.
Please note that the number for the meal plans is an average of all the options given to us, the freshman dorm excludes Ruter Hall, and upperclassmen dorms is an average of both Lords residential housing, including the 1 bedroom option, and the McCombs housing.
Between the 2023-2024 academic year and the 2024-2025 year, there was a 5.4% increase in tuition, bringing the average student cost from $50,558 to $53,288. But wait–it gets worse. The Southwestern admin increased it once again for the 2025-2026 academic year, about a 5.5% increase from the 2024-2025 academic year. More money in the pockets of the institution means more debt for students to drag along as they exit school and enter the professional world with massive student debt or parents who will not be able to afford their kids’ tuition.
However, tuition is not the only cost that has been increasing. Housing and meal plans, both necessities for many on campus, have also increased.
Both the first-year and second-year dorms have increased 5.4% (2023/2024 – 2024/2025) and 6.4%. (2024/2025 – 2025/2026).
As for the upperclassmen housing, remember, this is an average. It increased a whopping 7.6% (2023/2024 – 2024/2025) but actually decreased about 0.08% for the academic year of 2024/2025 – 2025/2026.
The decrease in upperclassmen housing is due to the cost of McCombs Residential Center. Due to the mold in Mabee, Southwestern is changing the layout of rooms in McCombs. Originally, they had a certain number of rooms to house only two students, allowing each student to have their own room and bath. However, they’ve changed the room setup to house 4 students, 2 students in each room.
Meal plans also increased by 3.5% (2023/2024 – 2024/2025) and 5.4% (2024/2025 – 2025/2026). Vehicle registration and the Black and Gold Advantage, thankfully, hasn’t increased so that’s one less increasing cost that we have to worry about.
So what are some of the major influences as to why the tuition and other costs have been increasing every year?
Mold Remediation
As I mentioned earlier, the Mabee Hall has an ongoing mold problem currently being addressed. But that came at a cost: moving some of the students off campus and paying for housing there as well as transportation.
This was an unexpected cost for Southwestern, so it makes sense to increase tuition to recover some of the money that they lost.
Mabee Hall isn’t the only place that has had mold problems; the Cullen building addressed their mold problem last fall and finished their mold remediation towards the end of the semester, and the Robertson Center is currently doing mold remediation in some office spaces in the building.
That being said, mold remediation is expensive to ensure this problem doesn’t arise again.
New Student Enrollment
At a recent President’s Corner event here at SU, it was revealed that Southwestern has been struggling with enrollment, and the latest freshmen have not met those expectations. Without the money that freshmen students bring in, Southwestern has to look for other ways to acquire funds for the university.
One way in which SU has attempted to make up for the lost money is to increase enrollment of transfer students and reshape their recruitment strategies.
It seems that Southwestern is optimistic about enrollment. At the President’s Corner, Vice President for Strategic Recruitment and Enrollment, Dr. Tom Delahunt, said, “we are back on track this year and expect around 400 first-year students”.
Construction
Construction has been an ongoing thing since 2023. First, we have the renovation of Mood-Bridwell. Since my freshman year of 2023, we’ve started several new projects: building a new welcome center, building new first and second year residence halls, and a new restaurant, The Perch. Here’s what we know so far about the construction:
- Mood-Bridwell Hall is going to consist of classrooms, a new coffeehouse on campus, and spaces for big gatherings and social events.
- It was originally planned to finish over the summer of 2024, but that date has been pushed back to be completed by spring of 2025. Maybe we’ll see it before we leave for the summer!
- The east side of campus will consist of a new welcome center, and two residence halls. The welcome center will have an art gallery, cafe, theatre, and meeting spaces, while both of the residence halls will have study and lounge spaces, meeting rooms, and a yoga and pilates studio.
- Last fall, ground was broken for two new residence halls, and a new welcome center.
- As of today, the foundation for all three are in place. The electrical systems and underground plumbing is complete for the freshman residence hall but is ongoing for the second-year residence hall. As for the welcome center, the steel framing and detailing was still ongoing as of December 2024.
- The completion date is predicted to be in the spring of 2026, assuming there are no other setbacks.
- The Perch is a new restaurant in the making, consisting of traditional farmhouse cuisine, cocktails, and a variety of wine and beer selections. It will replace the Pirate’s Tavern on Maple Street. It’s predicted that the construction will be completed by the second or third quarter of 2025.
- There were rumors that Southwestern would get their own multi-purpose athletics stadium to host football games on campus and other big events. However, we haven’t been able to break ground yet, as the designing of the stadium is still underway.
With all of that being said, there’s a lot of construction going on to improve student experiences. However, more construction means that we’re spending money. A lot of money.
While I do understand that some of these construction projects are meant to elevate our experiences here at SU and ensure that we are safe from any health and safety hazards, I feel that the increase of the costs to attend school outweighs the experiences on-campus.
Looking at the Tactical Plan, Southwestern has achieved a lot of the priorities listed there. One of the priorities achieved was the first priority of the first category, ‘Funding Priorities’, which says “Decrease student indebtedness overall, an offshoot of which will be narrowing the gap between the demonstrated financial need of our students and the available financial aid”. The continuous tuition increase seems to counter that achievement.
But even with the specter of tuition increases looming large, there is a bright future for Southwestern once the construction on-campus and mold remediation is completed, and enrollment increases.