Trinity Tuition and Fees and Trinity Budget Explained

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Trinity Tuition and Feesand Trinity Budget
Explained

• March 2009

For more information contact President Patricia
McGuire president_at_trinitydc.edu www.trinitydc.edu
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March, 2009 Dear Trinity Students, Every
February, the Trinity Board of Trustees
establishes the tuition and fee levels for the
next academic year. On February 13, 2009, the
Trustees established the tuition levels for
2009-2010. You will find a statement of these
new tuition levels on the following slides.
Along with these new tuition levels, you will
find additional information to help you to
understand how Trinitys budget works, what your
tuition dollar supports, and how to get financial
aid. Mindful of the impact of the current
recession on Trinity students and families, the
Trustees wanted to keep next years tuition and
fee increases modest. At the same time, the
recession is posing challenges for Trinitys
finances, including some reduction in charitable
gifts and endowment income, and higher prices for
goods and services including utilities, insurance
and banking fees. After much consideration, the
Trustees decided upon a 3 increase for 2009-2010
tuition and fees, which is consistent with
Trinitys practice for many years. With this
increase, Trinitys full-time undergraduate
tuition next year will be 19,360, compared to
nearly 25,000 average tuition for private
colleges nationally. In the next few slides, you
will see how Trinitys tuition and fees stack up
against other universities in this area. We also
present important financial aid information as
well as budget information of interest to
you. We are doing everything possible to control
costs at Trinity, and to refrain from passing on
all but the most essential expense increases to
you, our students and families. I am happy to
provide any additional information you may
request to help you to plan your Trinity
education effectively. Thank you for being a
vital part of the Trinity community! Sincerely
, President Patricia McGuire
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The next slide shows Trinitys new tuition levels
for 2009-2010
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Tuition rates change annually. Additional fees
apply for certain courses and services. Check
Trinitys website www.trinitydc.edu for the most
current list of tuition rates and fees each
semester.
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The next slide shows how the growth in
Trinitys full-time undergraduate tuition (the
yellow bars) compares to the growth in private
college tuitions nationally (the purple
bars)since 1991!
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TUITION 1991-2010Comparing Trinity FULL-TIME
Tuition with National Average for 4 Yr Private
College
7 .3.7..0 ..3.6..2.6
5..4.4.6.3...3.35...........5
.........3...........3............3............
3........3..........3 TRINITY PERCENTAGE
INCREASEs
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The next slide shows how the growth in
Trinitys full-time undergraduate tuition (the
yellow columns) in the last three years compares
to area universities and other womens colleges
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Tuition Levels with Cohort Comparisons FY07-08-09
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The next slide shows comparisons of
per-credit-hour tuitions for undergraduate, adult
studies and graduate tuitions at area universities
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PER CREDIT Tuition Levels 08-09 Including
UMD/UMUC for NON Residents
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FINANCIAL AID AT TRINITY
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The next slide shows the volume of financial aid
from all sources awarded to Trinity students
note that all student aid is in this picture,
including loans to graduate students (the largest
group of borrowers) and scholarships to full-time
undergraduates
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The next slide shows the same data as the
previous slide --- all aid from all sources, but
more clearly stratified on the left hand side of
the page, and on the right-hand side is a tall
column showing the tuition volume. Note that all
aid is higher than the tuition volume because
some portion of federal loans may be used for
living expenses.
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Heres how the aid breaks down by types of aid
and academic level of students
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This slide shows grants only --- and grants from
Trinity to students total 4.7 million, which is
MORE THAN ALL OTHER GRANT SOURCES COMBINED (3.5
MILLION)
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How can I get more financial aid?
Trinitys Office of Enrollment Services (Main
154) will work with every student individually to
develop the best possible financial aid
package. Trinitys website includes extensive
financial aid information. Please visit
http//www.trinitydc.edu/offices/enrollment/Applyi
ng_for_Financial_Aid.html Trinitys Enrollment
Services staff will provide instructions for you
to apply for Federal Pell Grants and Loans. Our
staff will also tell you more about Trinity
grants and scholarships, as well as outside
scholarships. Please take advantage of the
expertise of our staff. They can help you! You
can also contact our staff for financial aid help
by writing to EnrollmentServices_at_trinitydc.edu Pho
ne 202-884-9530
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I Hear that the Federal Government is Increasing
Financial Aid. How Will the New Federal
Stimulus Package Help Me?

• Correct!
• The action that Congress and the President
  recently took to pump billions of dollars into
  the economy includes significant aid boosts for
  students. These increases include
• Pell Grant increases to 5300 and 5500 for the
  next two years
• A tuition tax credit of 2500 that includes an
  opportunity to get a partial refund on tuition
  even if you do not have to pay tax
• Increases in work-study money as well
• Trinity will provide more information on the
  actual benefits of these increases to Trinity
  students when the U.S. Department of Education
  provides more information on how this will
  actually work in practice.

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I heard something about the process changing for
federal loans. Whats up with that?

• As you have heard in the media, the economic
  crisis has had some effect on the student loan
  industry, and a number of lenders have stopped
  offering Federal Stafford Loans. 
• To make sure Trinity students continue to have
  access to low-interest government-guaranteed
  loans, Trinity began participating in the Direct
  Loan Program last fall and will offer Direct
  Loans, rather than the bank-based Stafford Loans,
  to all students effective for the fall 2009
  semester.   
• Direct Loans have the same loan amounts and
  beneficial repayment terms for students as the
  Stafford Loans, except that the lender is the
  U.S. Department of Education, rather than a bank
  or other financial institution.  Students borrow
  these loans directly from the federal government
  and have a single contact the Direct Loan
  Servicing Center through repayment. 
• Students who have borrowed from both the Stafford
  Loan and Direct Loan Programs will have an
  opportunity to consolidate all of their loans
  through the Direct Loan Program at graduation. 
• If you borrowed a Stafford Loan this year, the
  Office of Enrollment Services will be sending you
  more information about Direct Loans in the coming
  weeks. 
• Trinitys website includes extensive financial
  aid information. Please visit
  http//www.trinitydc.edu/offices/enrollment/Applyi
  ng_for_Financial_Aid.html

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What Do We Do With Your Money?
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The following slide shows revenues and expenses
for Trinitys 27 million operating budget in
2008 - 2009 (Fiscal Year 2009)
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GROSS REVENUE/EXPENSE ACTUALS FISCAL
2006,2007,2008
27.1
27.1
26.3
26.1
26.1
25.8
EXPENSES
REVENUES
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FISCAL 2009 TRINITY BUDGET REVENUE SOURCES
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What Tuition Contributes to the University Budget

• Overall, net student tuition (gross tuition minus
  the 4.5 million in discount) contributes about
  76 cents toward every dollar of the 22.5 million
  expense budget that Trinity spends on direct
  operating expenses, with the revenue streams from
  each student population as follows
• College of Arts Sciences tuition contributes
  about 27 cents to every dollar spent
• School of Education tuition contributes about 21
  cents to every dollar spent
• School of Professional Studies tuition
  contributes about 28 cents to every dollar spent.

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If Tuition Revenues Pay Only 76 of Expenses,
Where Does the Rest of the Money Come From?

• The remaining 24 cents of every dollar that
  Trinity spends comes from
• Charitable gifts from alumnae and benefactors
  (The Trinity Annual Fund)
• Government grants and private contracts, and
• Revenues derived from auxiliary enterprises
  including student room rentals, conference
  income, Trinity Center rentals and fees, and
  other similar sorts of miscellaneous income.

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What Are Trinitys Expenses?
On the expense side of the ledger, for every
dollar Trinity spends heres how the money is
allocated
57 cents Salaries and Benefits for Trinitys
Faculty and Staff
15 cents Facilities including utilities
5 cents SECURITY
3 cents Technology
3 cents Insurance, Legal, Audit
3 cents Printing and Postage
3 cents Food Service
2 cents Bad Debt
2 cents Advertising
1 cent Campus Shuttle
1 cents Library
5 cents Everything Else
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THE BOTTOM LINE

• We know that our students and families experience
  a great deal of financial stress in pursuing
  their dream of a Trinity education. In the
  current recession, we are doing everything
  possible to sustain Trinitys quality while
  restraining prices. We provide extensive
  financial aid for our students to help them
  achieve their educational goals.
• As a private university, Trinity does not receive
  the taxpayer-subsidized support of the public
  universities in this region, like the University
  of Maryland or George Mason. Our main source of
  operating funds comes from tuition, gifts and
  grants, and payments for auxiliary services like
  conferences.
• Trinity makes every effort to control costs while
  providing a high quality learning experience for
  every student. Our devoted staff and faculty
  work long hours with modest amenities to make
  this education effective each day.
• Continued

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THE BOTTOM LINE

• Trinitys top priorities in every budget cycle
  are those budget items that contribute to
  excellence in education here
• improving faculty salaries
• continuous upgrades of Trinitys technological
  capacity, especially academic technology and the
  telecommunications infrastructure
• improvement in Trinitys student services like
  academic support and advising and
• continuing to fund a large amount of student
  financial aid through Trinitys own resources.
• We also must attend continuously to facilities
  needs and the growing costs of additional
  regulatory compliance imposed by federal and
  local governments.
• Trinity has ambitious plans to renovate and
  expand our academic and student life facilities
  in the years to come. The funding for these
  projects will come largely from gifts and grants
  and auxiliary revenues, as is true right now for
  the Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports.
  
• Note Funding for the Trinity Centers
  operations and debt service comes from charitable
  gifts and grants as well as auxiliary revenues
  collected from membership fees and rentals.
  Since the Trinity Center opened in 2003, all
  students have had full access to the sports,
  health, wellness and fitness facilities and
  programs of the Trinity Center with no additional
  fees charged to students for access to these
  facilities and programs, unlike many other
  universities that charge a special fee for use of
  the recreation center.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• About College Tuition
• at Trinity at other universities

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College Tuition FAQs

• Why Does Tuition Go Up Every Year?
• Labor. Technology. Utilities. Facilities.
• Many reasons drive annual tuition increases.
  The most notable reason stems from the fact that
  colleges and universities are largely
  labor-driven businesses, meaning that salaries
  and benefits are our primary expense.
• At Trinity, salaries and benefits account for
  57 of our expense budget, which is pretty
  normal. Our faculty and staff expect to get
  raises every year, just like other workers.
  These raises help our employees to keep up with
  the cost of living. At Trinity, where salaries
  and benefits are relatively modest, annual raises
  have held steady at around 3 for many years.
• We also often have to add faculty and staff to
  keep up with the instructional and service needs
  of our students. Or, we might want to add a new
  program, like Nursing, that meets a distinctive
  workforce need in our region. Personnel
  additions are an investment cost that we hope
  will pay for themselves over time, but in the
  first few years, they are often additions to
  budget without offsetting revenues.
• Trinity must also purchase goods and services in
  order to deliver our academic programs ---
  everything from the cost of insurance to
  telephone and internet providers to food service
  to electricity, water and natural gas. These
  expenses are rising all the time, and so
  Trinitys tuition increases keep up with the
  rising costs of goods and services we must
  purchase.

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College Tuition FAQs

• OK, I get it about some annual increases, but why
  does tuition go up faster than the rate of
  inflation?
• Some of the goods and services that Trinity must
  buy have price rises that are much higher than
  inflation --- for example, the cost of employee
  health care goes up every year. The cost of water
  and electricity in the Washington region is
  skyrocketing.
• Every time the federal or local government passes
  a new regulation affecting higher education, we
  have additional legal fees and other fees and
  costs to ensure compliance. The new Higher
  Education Act has 110 NEW federal regulations
  that we have to abide by.
• We also want to make ongoing investments in
  technology, and the cost of technological
  equipment and services is very high, and we have
  to invest more than just a steady state
  increase each year in order to provide state of
  the art equipment and software.
• Its also no secret that we have some fairly old
  buildings on Trinitys campus, and we are
  constantly trying to upgrade our older
  infrastructure. Upgrading or replacing the old
  infrastructure costs a lot more than simply the
  price of a spigot at Home Depot --- in many cases
  here at Trinity, we have to special order parts
  because our mechanical equipment is so very
  special.
• Every time theres a bad incident on a college
  campus elsewhere --- a violent crime, a weather
  catastrophe --- we have to do a risk management
  review here to see how prepared we are to cope
  with a crisis. Often, in planning a better
  response, we have to spend additional money on
  personnel, consultation, equipment or other
  services in order to improve our ability to
  respond to a crisis.

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College Tuition FAQs

• Those seem like all administrative issues, but I
  came here to get a great education. How do the
  faculty and academic programs benefit from
  tuition increases?
• Beyond increases in salaries and benefits
  mentioned above, Trinity also continuously
  assesses whether to add full-time faculty or
  staff positions to serve the academic and
  co-curricular needs of students. For example,
  with the growth in demand for Nursing, Trinity
  will be adding more faculty in that discipline,
  along with disciplines like Criminal Justice,
  Business, Psychology and in related programs, all
  of which enroll large numbers of majors or
  support large general education courses.
• Trinity will continue to add staff in related
  Academic Services like advising and academic
  support, as well as in Enrollment Services where
  so many students go to get assistance with
  registration, financial aid, and preparation for
  graduation.
• Improving academic technology is a continuous
  focus at Trinity. All computers and peripherals
  in classrooms, labs, faculty offices and
  elsewhere are on a continuous upgrade plan, and
  often the equipment needs replacement at an
  earlier moment. Software upgrades must occur
  frequently, and sometimes we need to retain
  consultants to assist with academic technology
  needs.

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College Tuition FAQs

• I live in Cuvilly and this building is just OLD.
  When is Trinity going to get some modern
  residence halls?
• Cuvilly Hall is just 50 years old, which is not
  OLD like Main Hall (110), but it does have that
  certain 50s vintage. Many collegiate
  residence halls date to the 1950s, 60s and 70s
  when lots of colleges built dormitories quite
  similar to Cuvilly, and many of these kinds of
  buildings are still operational on campuses
  across the country. Trinity has invested and
  continues to invest in the residence hall
  infrastructures in Main Hall, Cuvilly and Kerby,
  including relatively new boilers and chillers and
  other mechanical upgrades and improvements to
  areas you may not see, like the roofs and
  plumbing.
• In 2009 Trinity added cable television because
  the national digital conversion made it necessary
  for Trinity to upgrade campus television access.
  This is a great new benefit for residents, but
  the project cost 200,000 for the initial
  installation and will require ongoing fees. This
  is just one example of the benefits and costs of
  technological progress.
• Trinity is planning to build new residence halls
  in the future, but we do not have a firm date.
  New residence halls today cost about 65,000 per
  bed to construct, so a new residence hall for 200
  students might cost as much as 13 million.
  Were assessing how we might finance such a
  project. This project is part of a continuing
  campus expansion program that will also include a
  new Academic Center and other facilities
  improvements, including upgrades to Main Hall.
  Trinity is preparing to launch a very significant
  capital campaign to pay for all of these new
  expenses. Tuition revenues cannot possibly
  subsidize new buildings or major renovations.

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Trinity Welcomes Your Input!To Comment on this
Slideshowor to Receive Additional
InformationPlease ContactPresident Patricia
McGuirepresident_at_trinitydc.edu202-884-9050Offi
ce of the President125 Michigan Avenue,
NEWashington, DC 20017