Individual students are receiving less financial aid than last year because the recession has subsided some, said Donald Saleh, vice president of enrollment management at Syracuse University.

‘The class that came in, in 2009, came in at the height of the recession,’ he said. ‘This year the discount rate dropped in part because the recession has subsided some, and that was what we would have expected.’

The discount rate refers to the percentage of all tuition that goes toward scholarship aid and grants provided by the university. Although the discount rate is expected to be lower, the exact data will not be made available until an official count of students attending and revenue collected is made in

October, Saleh said. Students are still completing the financial aid process, which is also why no estimates can be made yet.

In the 2010 fiscal year, the discount rate rose from 36.6 percent to 38.3 percent, approximately $211 million to $228 million, according to the 2010

Annual Finance Report. This year’s discount rate is expected to slightly decrease, but remain near 38 percent, said Robert Van Gulick, a member of the University Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs.

‘I think it will be very close to what it was last year,’ Van Gulick said. ‘We haven’t gotten any messages over the summer that indicate otherwise.’

Due to the recession and pressures on university budgets, a ‘new normal’ of fiscal constraints is facing universities nationwide, said Chancellor Nancy Cantor at a University Senate meeting March 3. Tuition increases need to be met with an increase in the financial aid budget in order to keep attracting middle-income families to the university, but SU is finding other ways to stay competitive.

The discount rate for 2010 was expected to rise to 37 percent, according to the 2009 Annual Finance Report. Due to the recession, more families were struggling with lower incomes as opposed to prior and future years, Saleh said. This resulted in a higher discount rate than expected.

Revenue from tuition is the university is largest source of income, he said.

Slightly more than half of the Class of 2014 has received scholarship aid or grants from the university, Saleh said, which is about the same amount as the Class of 2013.

As the number of students who receive financial aid increases, the number of students who must pay full price decreases, which poses a problem, Van Gulick said.

‘The tuition would have to be higher and higher in order to fund the financial aid,’ Van Gulick said. ‘In order to get enough money to run the university, youíd have to raise the sticker price.’

Although increasing tuition allows for more funding for financial aid, it could also have a reverse effect. If tuition is too high, prospective students could choose other schools rather than SU, Van Gulick said.

In order to remain competitive, the administration has been raising tuition at a lower rate than previous years. Last year, there was a 4.5 percent increase, the lowest in 43 years. The tuition increase will drop to 4 percent for the 2011 fiscal year.

‘As we move forward in this ‘new normal,’ to be blunt, the days of 5 percent to 6 percent tuition increases are over,’ Cantor said.

lgleveil@syr.edu

 

 

Published on August 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille