College Costs Going Up, Faculty Salaries Blamed

College costs have jumped six percent since last year, according to a recent study, and administrators say rising faculty salaries caused the increase.

The survey of 1797 American colleges and universities by the College Board showed that costs for students enrolled at private institutions rose more than six percent, while expenses at public institutions increased by about five percent.

Since 1983, college costs have been rising between six percent and seven percent per year, a level nearly three times the rate of inflation.

According to the College Board, the congress' recent budget cutting measures will slash federal financial aid programs and may make it harder for students to meet tuition payments.

Vice-President for Financial Affairs Thomas O'Brien attributed Harvard's 6.9 percent increase to the rise in faculty salaries. "If you don't change your student-faculty ratio, then the increase in wages and salaries translates into a direct change in costs," he said.

Several administrators contacted yesterday said that diminished federal research funds and growing competition from the private sector for scholars were leading to higher faculty salaries nationwide.

At the University of California at Berkeley, the rising demand in the private sector for experts in medicine, law, and engineering has spurred greater competition for faculty, according to Fritz Stern, Berkeley's principal budget analyst.

It is especially hard for universities to contain costs when faced with such pressures, said Bradford Perry '64, a Stanford financial officer, because they depend on large teaching and research staffs.

"Universities can't transfer from man to machine," he said.

Some officials said that rising private college costs may become prohibitive for certain students.

"The higher the private institutions' prices go, the more students will attend public universities," said Gerard O'Connor, budget director at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Stern said that students may have to increase their reliance on student loans to keep up with ever-increasing educational expenses. "The amount of grants may not be able to keep pace," he said.