Loyola is raising tuition by 9% for the 2025-2026 school year, causing quite the uproar among the community. With almost all Loyola students receiving some form of financial aid from the university, how will raising tuition affect them?
Some speculate that this tuition increase is due to the renovations being done on campus. The new dorm building, Chick-fil-A, the Orleans Room expansion, and Biever renovations are just a few of the new Loyola landscape additions that could factor into this rise. While these renovations are meant to improve our campus, it seems that Loyola might be falling into a cycle of using money they do not have. This change of charging our students more could inevitably lead to a decrease in student enrollment, just because students can not afford to stay here and attend Loyola.
I, like many other students, complain about how much we pay because the amount of money we give Loyola doesn’t even out to what we receive. We have mold in our dorms, food that’s making us sick, and it seems like theres always construction going on but nothing is improving. I enjoy going to school in New Orleans, but if I weren’t involved in student organizations, or apart of the college of Music and Media I don’t think I’d be returning next semester.
I have many friends that that are supporting themselves through college or at risk of displacing their families because of finances, and the University is doing nothing to help. Instead of working with students, the Office of Financial Affairs has begun strictly enforcing their payment deadlines. Students from now on will only be allowed to enroll in classes if their balance is $0, according to an email from Stuart Gay.
Housing is at the top of everyone’s priority list as students prepare for their living situation next semester. Biever dorms closing means incoming freshmen will take up the Buddig and Francis Family Suites, meaning upperclassmen who choose to remain living on campus have to move to the more expensive dorms. I will live in a single room in the new Uptown Dorm next semester with 5 other people. While I am fortunate to be able to afford this, my scholarships keep me here, and not knowing how the increase in tuition will affect my education and family is stressful.
On-campus living dorm prices range from almost $5,500 a semester for Cabra and Francis apartments to about $7,000 for a single in the new Uptown dorm, and non-apartment style dorms in Buddig and Francis are about $4,600. This puts students who planned on paying less for housing at a severe financial disadvantage. Although Loyola has allowed students to apply to live in those suites, it is not guaranteed, and they won’t find out their housing arrangements until early August. This leaves students scrambling to apply for housing they may not be able to afford, with no time to financially prepare for the bill Loyola will eventually send.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for students to juggle school work, extracurricular activities, mental health, and finances. I am very grateful that at this point in my college career, I have been able to survive with the money I saved from working over the summer, odd jobs during the year, and with some help from my family. I know that this is not the reality for many students, and jobs on or around campus are sparse. I encourage students to talk to other people in their major and professors about ways to get paid for gaining experience in fields relating to what they’d like to do in the future. We should not be punished for the university’s inability to manage its finances.
