Citing a desire to remain competitive with its peer institutions, the Board of Trustees will increase Saint Mary's tuition 6 percent for the 2001-02 school year. Next year's total cost will average $25,939.

"[The increase] is driven somewhat by budget considerations but the primary consideration was looking at 40 comparable colleges and we were well down on that list,"said Keith Dennis, vice president for finance and administration. "The Board did not feel that was an appropriate position compared to our peer institutions considering our ranking."

Saint Mary's is ranked as the best Midwest liberal arts school according to US News & World Report. Dennis said Saint Mary's needed to increase tuition in order to maintain the high quality of faculty, small class sizes and good student services that pushed Saint Mary's to the top ranking.

"If you are going to continue to deliver the quality of education we deliver now, we need to generate as much revenue as our peer institutions,"said Dennis.

Although tuition is increasing, the amount of money budgeted for financial aide is also increasing, according to Mary Nucciarone, director of financial aide.

"For our returning students, we try to increase the grant in accordance with the tuition increase assuming they demonstrate the same need," said Nucciarone.

The increase in tuition is unrelated to the Master Plan, according to Dennis. All the money for construction of new buildings comes from outside sources. When the buildings are complete, however, Dennis said that tuition money will be used to staff and maintain those new buildings.

Tuition increased 5.5 percent for the 2000-01 school year.

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