Unlike years past, there is no tuition freeze at Lindenwood University for this fall. Instead, the school will increase tuition by a fairly modest rate — about 2 percent — for traditional undergraduate students.

That brings annual tuition to $12,960, up $260 from $12,700. Add in similar size percentage increases for room and board, and the annual cost of attending Lindenwood next year will be $20,360. (The total for this current school year was $19,900.)

The school’s Board of Directors approved the increase late last week.

Lindenwood President James Evans said in a statement that the school is “sharing an increase in operating costs with students. We didn’t want them to bear the brunt of the increase.”

The school has frozen tuition for four consecutive years earlier this decade and cited the university’s enrollment growth as one of the reasons it could do so.  But it has had tuition increases in other years, including increases around 2 to 3 percent and as high as 7.1 percent.

Several other private universities in the region have announced smaller tuition increases than normal this year. St. Louis University is hiking tuition about 2 percent. Washington U. is increasing it about 4.4 percent. And tuition at Maryville U. is going up about 3 percent.

Part of the reason for these smaller tuition increases is to help students and families suffering during the recession to afford college. But schools, especially private ones worried that more students will flee this fall to public universities with cheaper tuition, are also doing it as an incentive so students might choose them.

The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.