Maryville U. also plans smaller tuition hike
Maryville President Mark Lombardi
Maryville University is considering a roughly 3 percent tuition increase for next year — a smaller increase than the last several years when tuition increases there have averaged about 5.2 percent.
President Mark Lombardi told me when I visited his office this morning that the Board of Trustees could sign off on the tuition increase at its meeting later this week.
If it goes ahead with this tuition plan, Maryville would fall in line with other local private universities who have also been announcing lower tuition increases in the last several weeks. Schools know that families are struggling to pay for college during the recession. So SLU will increase tuition by only 2 percent next fall. And at WashU, there will be a 4.4 percent increase.
And don’t forget that Gov. Jay Nixon has floated a plan for a tuition freeze at the state’s public universities and community colleges. In return, he has promised not to cut state appropriations for higher education next year and to keep college funding levels flat. But it remains to be seen whether or not this will become a reality since the Legislature will have the final say on the budget.
Getting back to Maryville, Lombardi also told me that Maryville is planning on putting about $600,000 to $800,000 more towards financial aid next year to help cash-strapped families pay for college. Currently, Maryville spends about $9.4 million on finaical aid.
And while many universities are concerned about potential enrollment drops because of the recession, Lombardi said that Maryville is having a blockbuster year with a record 3,500-plus students. And he added that applications are up for next fall.
Maryville is also hoping to break ground on a new residence hall this calendar year. The nationwide economic meltdown has made it more challenging to secure financing, Lombardi said, but the school is still moving ahead with its plans.
Like most other universities, Maryville’s endowment has taken a big hit this year. Lombardi said the university’s fund was at about $39 million at the end of June, but has since plummeted to about $30 million. But he added that the endowment’s drop is not causing a lot of hardships around campus because the school does not use the endowment to cover any of its operating costs. Rather, Maryville uses its endowment more as a contingency fund to finance special needs such as deferred maintenance and other capital projects.
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.
Kavita Kumar covers higher education for the Post-Dispatch. 
Kavita - have you looked at the Santa Fe New Mexican website lately, specifically the stories about College of Santa Fe’s imminent demise? The fact that Mark Lombardi wants to raise tuition is no surprise to me and other Santa Feans. He did that at CSF and then took off, and rumor has it with some money, too. Hmmmm, strange, too, that he took the VP of Finance and the VP of Enrollment with him, maybe to keep them under his watchful, beady eyes? Do some investigating, Kavita, and I think you’ll find a lot of dirt that Maryville University didn’t know about when they hired him.
Oh, yeah, another thing, Kavita. It’s not surprising that the endowment has fallen, seeing as how Lombardi said that he left the College of Santa Fe in good financial standing and less than two years later they’re on the verge of bankruptcy. Is there an off-shore account Maryville doesn’t know about?
Santa Fe Citizen - I also heard of different things that have gone on at Santa Fe College. The rumor that Mark possibly made it out of Santa Fe with some money shouldn’t be treated as anything but a rumor. If it isn’t proven, one should not think anything besides that (I’m not denying that it COULD be true). Being a Maryville alumnus and an avid follower, I too worried about what could be the repercussions of having Lombardi and two of his fellow VPs from Santa Fe. So far from what I have seen from the outside, things couldn’t be better. Enrollment is up is applications, as well as, deposits (meaning more students are putting money down on Maryville), AND the VP of Finance at Maryville has been the same person for at least 10 years and has ALWAYS kept Maryville in a great financial position.
Your comment, “…Mark Lombardi wants to raise tuition is no surprise to me…” is a very true statement, since almost every private school across the nation is raising tuition and does so almost EVERY year. The fact that Maryville (The Board of Trustees is actually how makes these decisions) only raised tuition around 3 percent is great. It shows that Maryville has a whole understands the economic situation, and is doing something to help families looking towards higher education.
Maryville’s endowment dropped from $39 million to $30 million. That is about right for private universities right now: just Google, “private universities losing endowments.” There will be story after story explaining how schools are losing millions and billions of dollars. I read in multiple spots that schools losing 25% of their endowment is about average right now.
People always ask about… “What about freezing tuition?” Freezing tuition for a private school isn’t something that is easily done. You have either over charged your current and past families and are able to eat the cost on that over charge, or you are going to be dipping into the endowment (which isn’t very smart in this economy).
Honestly, your personal opinions of Mark Lombardi taking money from SFC are just that, opinions and you have every right to express those. If and when you do talk about financial issues of a university as a whole (endowments, tuition, etc): look at your 401K or just the stock market, as well as, the national trends of universities (especially private universities) and you will realize that currently Maryville is the same boat as everyone else.