Like past years, and like every year for the foreseeable future, the Boards voted to increase tuition at CSB/SJU.

The St. Ben’s Board of Trustees and the St. John’s Board of Regents approved the fiscal-year budgets for the 2009 academic year last Friday, which included a comprehensive fee increase of 7.7 percent at St. Ben’s and 7.4 percent at St. John’s.

The tuition for both schools will increase 8 percent for incoming students — an average tuition before financial aid of $36,600 for St. Ben’s students and $35,900 for St. John’s students. Returning students will pay 6.5 percent.

In other words, returning CSB/SJU students will pay $1,692 more on tuition next year, while incoming students will be greeted with a $2,084 increase.

Jon McGee, the vice president of Enrollment, Planning and Public Affairs at CSB/SJU, says this sort of increase is typical for Minnesota colleges this year.

The only other MIAC schools to have released their budget proposals for the 2009 academic year are St. Olaf and the University of St. Thomas, which project 9.6 and 5.9 percent increases, respectively.

McGee says he expects the 2009 tuition at other Minnesota schools to range from 5 to 8 percent when all is said and done.

John Olson, an assistant economics professor and chair of the economics department, says part of the reason CSB/SJU are experiencing a higher increase compared to Minnesota colleges as a whole this year has to do with the school’s relatively small endowments, which are often used to help subsidize tuition.

“We are not poor, but we are certainly not rich,” Olson said. “Compared to other schools our size, we have to depend much more on tuition than our endowments.”

Of the MIAC, Macalester has the largest endowment at about $650 million, but also one of the most expensive tuition fees. Gustavus, a school McGee says is CSB/SJU’s closets competitor in these matters, has an endowment of about $96.5 million. St. Ben’s and St. John’s have endowments of about $33.4 and $121.9 million respectively.

McGee says the endowments will increase in time to levels closer to the likes of Macalester and Carleton, calling the current capital campaign a game of catch-up.

St. Ben’s set an $80 million capital campaign goal last year. St. John’s recently surpassed its campaign goal of $150 million.

However, larger endowments will not eliminate annual tuition increases, not by a long shot. The 2009 fiscal year has been the best for St. Ben’s and St. John’s and it will be for the foreseeable future, McGee says. If the current inflation trends continue, and if the economy remains uncertain, McGee says students should expect tuition increases as the schools not only cover inflation, but also continue investing in capital improvements and employee compensation.

Olson’s opinion echoes McGee’s assessment.

“Salary increases for the faculty and staff is a large portion of the budget,” Olson said. “Embedded in the budget is also what quantity improvements have they made and will they be making in the coming year, and things of that sort.”

However, as bleak as things may sound for incoming students, McGee is unapologetic about the increases, and says whether or not the tuition is worth it is up to the student, not the budgeting committee.

“We don’t just change prices because we can or because it is a casual activity,” McGee said. “It is because we are trying to do something important here.

“We owe it to the students to be open to discuss the budget, but they need to know it is what it is.”