Inside Higher Ed
by Josh Moody
May 13, 2022
In an email to employees last week, Boston University president Robert A. Brown outlined many familiar challenges in higher education today: the need to help Ukrainian students affected by the war in their homeland, lingering concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and difficulty hiring and retaining talent amid the Great Resignation, which has prompted many workers to leave their jobs.
But above all, Brown described inflation as his biggest worry.
“By far, my greatest immediate concern is the impact of inflation on faculty and staff, our students, and the University. We have increased undergraduate tuition 4.25% for the coming academic year, our largest increase in 14 years, following an increase of only 3.0% last year,” Brown wrote. “This increase does not keep pace with the current national rate of inflation and cannot fully offset the increased costs of University operations or fund salary increases that would fully mitigate the effects of inflation on the families of faculty and staff. I also am mindful that our students and their families are affected by our increases and by inflation. We are caught in an inflationary vise between the institutional pressures and the impact on our students and their families.”