What some local colleges are doing to keep tuition down despite inflation

PITTSBURGH — With inflation on a lot of minds, people are really noticing the cost of everything these day, including college tuition.

Sarah Defrancesco is working over the summer to help pay for half of her college payments at Slippery Rock University.

“I liked Slippery Rock because it is in state and it is a little bit cheaper than some of the other universities,” said the SRU junior.

And its unique in that it rescinded the tuition increase for this school year so students or their families aren’t paying more for 2022-2023.

“The students will benefit directly from the actions of the legislature and the governor,” said William Behre, Slippery Rock University President.

When the legislature decided to give more money to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the additional $9.7 million dollars to SRU’s base budget, was enough for the university to rescind the tuition increase the it proposed last fall.

“This is historic. In the 1980s there was an historic disinvestment in higher ed in the commonwealth,” said Behr. “This is an historic reinvestment.”

“To have the state come out with this kind of support for us shows that we’ve gained their trust and their respect,” said Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, President of PennWest.

PennWest is brand new, but the three schools that integrated to form it, Cal-U, Clarion, and Edinboro, have been able to keep tuition the same for four straight years. Dr. Dale says 400 people took advantage of retirement packages and they’ve only replaced 70 of those positions.

“So those are the things we have consolidated so that allows us to keep the money in reinvesting into the institution and the programs,” said Dr. Dale.

Carnegie Melon University and University of Pittsburgh were not able to find anyone to comment for this story, but students in Oakland wanted to.

“The only real impact is just us paying more and getting the same or incrementally less benefits every year,” said Meghna Sudhakar, CMU sophomore.

CMU’S website says the Board of Trustees approved an overall 4% increase to the undergraduate cost of attendance.

“3.5% is not a small number when it comes to how big the number already is, so it will be felt later once I pay my student loans back,” said Adam Taylor, a 5th Year Pitt student

That 3.5% is the tuition increase that Pitt put in place for in-state undergraduate and graduate students. It’s 5.5% more for out-of-state undergraduates. Pitt noted in a statement to Channel 11 earlier this summer that that tuition increases are still below U.S. inflationary levels.

Here’s how the schools we profiled stack up:

Slippery Rock & PennWest, both PASSHE schools, are $7-8,000 dollars a year for in state undergrads.

Pitt students from Pennsylvania will pay an average of $19,760 dollars in tuition this year

CMU tuition is $59,864 for undergrads.

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Evictions skyrocketing across Allegheny County

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