Friday, February 18, 2011

Sewanee Cutting Tuition -- Cue the Applause

Sewanee: The University of the South is cutting tuition 10 percent. Schools just don't take this step -- and those that have are generally small, unknown.

Sewanee, located the highlands of Tennessee, is noted for its English Department in part due to a bequest from playwright Tennessee Williams. The college is not exactly altruistic in making this move. It believes that doing so will allow it to compete more effectively against state colleges such as UVA and UNC, two colleges to which it loses students it has accepted, and against private colleges such as Vanderbilt and Washington & Lee which are, of course, increasing tuition.

Last September I suggested we start the Tuition Coalition, a means of banding together to decry the high costs. Right now it's still a group of one, but as sole officer of the coalition, I hereby bestow our highest honor on Sewanee. Here's to doing the right thing, whatever the reason!

1 comment:

  1. Appreciate the comments about those annoying college mailings. And I neglected to mention that I am also astounded that there is no real effort to describe why a student might want to attend the school. Isn't differentiation a marketing fundamental?

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