TUSALOOSA, Ala. — Stillman College plans to reduce its cost of attendance by about $5,000 in fall 2015 in the hope that making higher education more affordable will attract more students.
“If you look at national statistics, you see a lot of schools are having declining enrollments. One of the main reasons for declining enrollment is affordability,” Stillman President Peter Millet said.
In a letter to students last week, Millet said the annual cost of tuition, room and board would decrease from roughly $22,500 to $17,500 in the fall for full-time students. Millet sent a similar letter to faculty and staff announcing the change. Most of the reduction would come from a decrease in the tuition rate, he said.
Currently at Stillman, annual tuition is $13,548, meals are $3,350, and housing ranges from $2,300 to $3,404 depending on the residence hall, according to the college catalog.
“You should be able to go to school without going into the proverbial poorhouse,” Millet said. “If we lower the tuition, we are going to increase the number of students who are able to go to school. The number of students who are able to go to school will be able to offset the decrease in tuition.”
The decrease is a balancing act between the revenue the small private college needs to operate and what students can afford.
“The theory is that you have lots of people who cannot afford to go to school for $20,000 to $30,000 a year,” Millet said.
