Brown and White Vol. 129 no. 20

              The Brown and White Vol. 129 No. 20
Friday, November 13, 2015 ‘All the Lehigh News First’
COLLEGE TUITION ON THE RISE
Lehigh tuition costs increase despite lack of inflation
College tuition continues to out-pace
inflation rates across the nation
at both public and private universi-ties.
Lehigh’s tuition for the 2015-16
academic year rose about 3 percent
from the previous academic year,
from $44,520 to $45,860. This $1,340
increase raised the total cost of
attending Lehigh as an undergrad-uate
– including tuition, room and
board, and technologies – to $58,510.
According to a recent article pub-lished
by Time Money, the College
Board reported that college tuition
By REBECCA WILKIN
Assistant News Editor
and fees rose more than 3 percent
from previous year, despite the fact
that the government has reported
almost no inflation over the past 12
months.
However, this is not a recent trend.
Tuition has been on the rise for
the past several decades, and this
has been especially evident in the
past decade. According to Stephen
Guttman, the director of Lehigh’s
Finance and Administration Budget
Office, the cost of tuition in 2006 was
$33,770. In fewer than 10 academic
years, Lehigh’s tuition has increased
by $12,090.
“This year there was a 3 per-cent
increase from last year,” said
Patricia A. Johnson, vice president
for Finance and Administration.
“The percentage of increase has been
going down, at least in the last three
years. The percentage increases used
to be higher because inflation was
higher.”
Johnson said one reason for the
increase in tuition is compliance, such
as Title IX reporting, which requires
Lehigh to hire an Equal Opportunity
Compliance Coordinator. The funds
have also been used for career plan-ning
and placement services, as well
as building renovation.
“The university is 150 years old
and there are buildings that we have
to upkeep,” Johnson said. “We have
to create value for the students and
build new buildings or renovate the
old ones.”
Technology changes, as well as
increases in salaries for faculty and
staff members, have also contributed
to the rise in tuition.
According to the Finance and
Administration Department’s pub-lished
budget for the 2014-15 aca-demic
year, approximately 56 percent
of the $475 million budget came from
tuition and fees, Lehigh’s largest
Design labs serve various academic disciplines
Nestled in the back halls of
Chandler-Ullmann, Lehigh’s design
labs provide technical resources for
a range of disciplines and students.
The design labs include pop-ular
tools such as the woodshop,
a CNC router and a laser cutter
supervised by managers by Brian
See TUITION Page 3
By SAMANTHA TOMASZEWSKI
News Editor
Slocum, Michael Moore and student
shop managers. An extension of the
design labs is the metal shop located
in Wilbur Powerhouse.
While there are many resources
made available to students, some-times
these can be stretched thin at
high-traffic times of the semester.
Students in mechanical engineer-ing,
electrical engineering, the tech-nical
entrepreneurship program,
the integrated product development
program, product design, graphic
design, architecture and sometimes
even sculpture are all in disciplines
that may have need for the labs’
resources in one way or another.
Lucy Gans, a professor and chair
in art and architecture, said while
the design labs are housed in their
department, the intention is not for
them to be exclusively for one set of
students or one program.
“The idea behind the design labs
is that it would be a kind of hub
and a kind of design center for the
university and that it would be man-aged
by our staff,” Gans said.
In the Design 004 class, students
are taught to use the program
AutoCAD, which is used to draw
patterns to be cut by the laser cut-ter.
Students send their file to an
email address to be put in the queue
to get cut and then put their mate-rials
in drawers outside the lab. The
queue works such that the files are
cut in the order in which they are
Inside Sports
Senior defensive back Randall
Lawson hopes to end his college
football career with a Patriot
League Championship ring.
See Page 12
Engineering and
architecture students alike
use the design labs as a
resource for projects
See DESIGN Page 2
Kelly McCoy/B&W Staff (Clip art courtesy of Canva)