The conversation about the rising cost of higher education has not been left off of the Saint Anselm campus as the college’s total costs for a resident has risen to $51,872.

This year’s tuition costs $35,396, an increase of $1,312 from last year’s tuition, which was $34,084.

Standard fees for residential students are $936, and $832 for commuters, standard room and board is $13,040, estimated transportation is $500 and books and personal costs are both estimated to be $1,000.

Elizabeth Keuffel, the Director of Financial Aid, explained that there is a lot more that tuition goes to than just classes.

Every staff and faculty member needs to be paid, every building needs to be heated and lighted, the roads need to be plowed and sanded after every storm and the IT infrastructure that supports all of the phones, laptops, tablets, and gaming systems on campus needs to be maintained.

Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina is similar to Saint Anselm in many ways, as it is a Benedictine college dedicated to ensuring that their students leave with the Benedictine values after graduation.

They have about 300 fewer students, but share the same basic mission as our home on the Hilltop.

Belmont Abbey recreated their core curriculum in the opposite way Saint Anselm just has in 2011, with 50-53 hours of core classes (of the 120 required to graduate) which include a two part Western Civilization course, a two part rhetoric course, political and classical philosophy, math, scripture and theology, a U.S. Constitution introduction, two science courses with labs, an introduction to psychology, sociology, or economics, fine arts and a first-year symposium.

Their total cost is $33,774, with tuition set at $18,500 and an estimated $10,674 for room and board.

Their estimated costs for books and supplies is $1,200, transportation an approximate $1,300, personal expenses around $1,600, and a loan fee of $500.

Furthermore, Saint Anselm was just placed 16th on TIME’s list of “20 Private Colleges with the Highest Student Loan Debt.”

Most students who attend Saint Anselm College receive some form of financial aid, and for the past few years, 98% of graduates of the college have been employed or participating in service.

The college is not unaware of the problem that rising costs make it difficult for students to attend.

There is the Capitol Campaign and the annual giving fund, which both increase the college’s endowment and allow the financial aid department to give more to students.

Together, they also contribute to things that would otherwise need to be funded by tuition dollars.

Keuffel stressed that the hype in the media about the cost of college is not unfounded, but is unnecessary. She emphasized that colleges and universities, including Saint Anselm, are not trying to take advantage of students.

It costs money to run a college, but Saint Anselm will continue to build the endowment, Capital Campaign and annual giving program in order to help students and families afford a Saint Anselm education.