NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- After seeing enrollment decline for the first time in a decade, the University of Charleston, in West Virginia, slashed tuition by 22% for the upcoming school year hoping to entice more students.
The school, which currently has 1,006 undergraduate students, employed a series of initiatives to afford the cut, including reducing its financial aid, sharing professors with colleges in the region and graduating students early. As a result, tuition for new students will be $19,500 per year beginning in August -- down from the current rate of $25,000.
In an interview with CNNMoney, the university's president, Dr. Edwin Welch, explains why he took this unusual step and what the impact has been so far:
Why did you decide to cut tuition?
Last year, there were 30 students or so who had enrolled at the university but changed their minds after August 1. They went to different places -- we lost some students who transferred to community colleges. This was a new event for us.
We realized parents and families were now considering the overall price, not just the discount [financial aid and scholarships] they would be able to get. As universities we tend to market education the same way Joseph A. Banks advertises clothes, thinking the advertised price is not that important but the discounts are the most important part. But that's what is driving middle-class students away. So it seemed we needed to take a fresh look.
How did you decide on a 22% cut?
We had thought about cutting tuition by 20% at first, but the board said the total price should be under $20,000, so we cut it a little further and agreed on a ceiling price of $19,500.
How are you able to afford to cut tuition by 22%?
We've undertaken about half a dozen initiatives to reduce what it costs to run the institution.
We have a faculty-sharing program, which is a new initiative for this upcoming year. We'll share professors between five school! s to tea ch certain subjects. We also have a fast-track program, and 35% of the students who come to our school and stay earn a degree in three years instead of four or enroll in graduate school. That means students can replace a year of tuition with a year of income.
We have not lowered salaries.
Has the school reduced the total amount of financial aid it is offering to students?
We reduced how much aid we're giving overall. We're guaranteeing no one will pay more than $19,500.
Numbers won't be complete until the end of the year, but if we had 1,000 students and reduced tuition by $5,500 per student, that's $5.5 million that's not going to be awarded in financial aid. But on the other hand, all of our students get a discount anyway because we reduced the overall price.
We still have financial aid available -- a significant amount. This year we probably gave $15 million in financial assistance. Next year, we'll give maybe $10 million.
What has been the impact of the decision to lower tuition so far? Have you seen applications increase?
So far, the reaction from parents and students has been very positive. We expected a spike in applications, and applications are up nicely in our primary markets -- West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Total applications are ahead of our two-year average but slightly behind last year.
More importantly, our deposits are up 40%. This suggests that students and families who look at us are finding the new tuition structure attractive and are depositing at a higher rate than previously.
As part of its 5-year vision, your university hopes to increase enrollment -- which currently stands at a total of 1,372 undergraduate and graduate students -- by 79%. Do you think this is a realistic goal?
As part of our vision, we want to reach total enrollment of 2,500 students within the next five years. We are starting a physician's assistant program which should bring some additional ! students , and we would like to add another graduate program. We hope that the process of lowering tuition helps us in the undergraduate area.
Have you seen enrollment decline in recent years?
We've had 60% more enrollment over the past 10 years, and we've had 10 years of increases. Then we had a decrease in new students this year [the 2011-2012 academic year]. We were down 70 students. So our commitment was to make sure this was the one exception to the trend.
What if the tuition cut does not boost enrollment? What's next?
This all revolves around net income. We can meet our budget targets either by increasing enrollment, increasing net revenue per student, or a combination of both. If neither of those three occur, then we will need to reduce expenses or expand other revenue sources.
Do you foresee your decision to cut tuition sparking a price war with other colleges?
I was at a national meeting with college presidents this January talking about tuition reduction, and a number of presidents talked to me in the meeting and outside of the meeting, saying they are considering lowering tuition.
I would hope schools would start to get their advertised price more in line with what people actually have to pay, but presidents are nervous, boards are nervous. It takes a while because it is such a bold and daring thing to do. Most schools are going to be afraid to do it. Sewanee, University of the South, did it last year and their enrollment went up, and we followed what they did.
Which colleges do you expect will be the first to follow your lead and lower tuition?
Schools like us who are second-tier educational institutions. Not Harvard, not the University of Pennsylvania. Schools that already have high rates of financial aid and are willing to market the price over the discount and change the way they operate.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the school is hoping to add 2,500 students over five ye! ars. It' s trying to reach a total enrollment of 2,500 students in five years.
Show Me the Love... Or Not
Chuck Ford tells his wife often how much he loves her. He likes to hold hands when they walk, cuddle when they watch TV and hug—a lot.
His wife has learned to like it. "I don't like to sit on the couch and cuddle for two hours," says Judy Ford, a 66-year-old retired high-school counselor from Carmel, Ind.
Of all the ways that opposites attract, the thorniest may be when emotionally giving types pair up with types who are emotionally reserved.
Givers love to show affection: Hugs, kisses, flowers, skywriting—there's no such thing as too much. They crave receiving displays of love, as well.
Reserved types certainly may love deeply, but they are uncomfortable showing it. Often, they rely on their partner to initiate a display of affection. Sometimes, they don't even enjoy receiving expressions of love.
Initially, emotionally giving types are attracted to emotionally reserved types, and vice versa, because they are so different, experts say. Giving people often find reserved people intriguing; they like to elicit affection from someone who doesn't express it easily. And deep down, reserved types often like to be drawn out.
Over time, though, the two types can bring out the worst in each other. The giver starts to seem needy. The reserved partner reacts by pulling away. This makes the giver give even more in order to elicit attention; the reserved one backs away even further.
Early in their 20-year marriage, Mr. Ford, a 61-year-old retired social-studies teacher, began to feel his wife didn't fully reciprocate his affection. She rarely initiated hugs and kisses. And while she let him hold her hand sometimes, Mr. Ford says he could tell she didn't really enjoy it. He began to pull away. "I didn't want to waste my time," he recalls. "If the marriage isn't working so well, I can go fish or hunt or work on my studies or business relationships." He worried the relationship wouldn't last.
Then Ms. Ford asked her husband what was wrong. He told her, "I need more physical closeness, and not necessarily sex." She reminded him that she had been raised in a German-American household that wasn't "huggy-kissy." She told him she prefers to show lov! e throug h actions—making a nice home, planning vacations, setting up get-togethers with his family. "I was raised in a very bonded family that showed their love by spending time together," she says.
Robert Neubecker
In the psychology field, these different ways of relating are called "attachment style," and they are partly learned and partly genetic. Attachment is believed to be a basic human need with an evolutionary basis. Many children, such as orphans, who aren't held or given physical affection fail to grow at normal rates.
Amir Levine, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York, identifies three types of attachment styles: Secure, Anxious and Avoidant. Secure people make up more than half the population and are typically warm, caring and comfortable with intimacy, he says.
Robert Neubecker
Those with an Anxious attachment style, about 20% of the population, often worry about their relationship and whether their partner loves them, says Dr. Levine, co-author of the book "Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love." They typically are emotionally giving. Those with an Avoidant attachment style, about 25% of the population, tend to think intimacy leads to loss of autonomy and try to minimize closeness, he says.
In the mid-1960s, a Johns Hopkins University psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, developed an experiment known as "the Strange Situation": A young child plays with her mother in a room. Her mother leaves, and a stranger remains. Then the mother returns. Most children were distressed when their mothers left the room, says Robert S. Marvin, director of the Mary D. Ainsworth Child-Parent Attachment Clinic, in Charlottesville, Va.
![[BONDS-JUMP]]()
Robert Neubecker
Dr. Ainsworth examined what took place during the mother-child reunion. Some children rushed to their mothers and were easily consoled; Dr. Ainsworth concluded they were secure. Other children were unable to be consoled by their mothers; these she called "anxious-resistant." Some didn't rush to their mothers, or they started to approach but then turned away; these she called "anxious-avoidant."
Another experiment, "the Still Face," conducted by Edward Tronick, now a developmental psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, demonstrates that a child can experience a mother's emotional withdrawal at an early age. Dr. Tronick videotaped a mother engaging lovingly with her approximately 1-year-old baby. Then the mother makes her face immobile. The baby notices and tries to re-engage with her by smiling, then by pointing, then shrieking and finally crying.
The good news, Dr. Levine says, is that attachment style can change. Experts say couples need to tell each other what they need and be specific. For example, they can say, "I know it's difficult for you to be affectionate in front of my friends, but at home I really need a hug every day."
Displays of love don't have to be 50-50, as long as both people show something. "Each partner will need to make some slight movements in the opposite direction from which they are comfortable," says Sharon Gilchrest O'Neill, a Mount Kisco, N.Y., marriage and family therapist. She says she is more emotionally reserved than her husband, and he asked her to give him a kiss when he comes home.
The Fords worked on their differences, and now Ms. Ford gives her husband hugs when he comes home and before bed. She has become more comfortable holding hands and often initiates it. Mr. Ford has altered his expectations and doesn't take his wife's lack of verbal or physical expression personally. He also pays attention to the other ways she tells him she loves him: planning special weekends together, washing his hunting clothes, preparing and freezing meals before he goes camping. "We've moved to a mutual center," Mr. Ford says. "It comes from communication."
—Email Elizabeth Bernstein at bonds@wsj.com or follow her column at www.Facebook.com/EBernsteinWSJ.
Write to Elizabeth Bernstein at Bonds@wsj.com
His wife has learned to like it. "I don't like to sit on the couch and cuddle for two hours," says Judy Ford, a 66-year-old retired high-school counselor from Carmel, Ind.
Of all the ways that opposites attract, the thorniest may be when emotionally giving types pair up with types who are emotionally reserved.
Givers love to show affection: Hugs, kisses, flowers, skywriting—there's no such thing as too much. They crave receiving displays of love, as well.
Reserved types certainly may love deeply, but they are uncomfortable showing it. Often, they rely on their partner to initiate a display of affection. Sometimes, they don't even enjoy receiving expressions of love.
Initially, emotionally giving types are attracted to emotionally reserved types, and vice versa, because they are so different, experts say. Giving people often find reserved people intriguing; they like to elicit affection from someone who doesn't express it easily. And deep down, reserved types often like to be drawn out.
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Then Ms. Ford asked her husband what was wrong. He told her, "I need more physical closeness, and not necessarily sex." She reminded him that she had been raised in a German-American household that wasn't "huggy-kissy." She told him she prefers to show lov! e throug h actions—making a nice home, planning vacations, setting up get-togethers with his family. "I was raised in a very bonded family that showed their love by spending time together," she says.
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When your partner is away, are you afraid that he or she might become interested in someone else? Constant worry about the relationship points to an Anxious attachment style. But if your partner is an Avoidant type, there may be reason to worry: Research indicates Avoidants are more likely to cheat in the long run.
Amir Levine, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York, identifies three types of attachment styles: Secure, Anxious and Avoidant. Secure people make up more than half the population and are typically warm, caring and comfortable with intimacy, he says.
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Does your partner act out when things go wrong in the relationship, or even threaten to leave? A partner may engage in 'protest behavior' to get the other to pay attention and later regret things they said or did. This behavior may be typical of an Anxious attachment style.
In the mid-1960s, a Johns Hopkins University psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, developed an experiment known as "the Strange Situation": A young child plays with her mother in a room. Her mother leaves, and a stranger remains. Then the mother returns. Most children were distressed when their mothers left the room, says Robert S. Marvin, director of the Mary D. Ainsworth Child-Parent Attachment Clinic, in Charlottesville, Va.
Do you find it difficult to be emotionally supportive when your partner is feeling down? Supporting someone in times of need is a big opportunity to be close. An Avoidant attachment style makes it difficult for some people to deal with closeness, and they tend to pull back.
Another experiment, "the Still Face," conducted by Edward Tronick, now a developmental psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, demonstrates that a child can experience a mother's emotional withdrawal at an early age. Dr. Tronick videotaped a mother engaging lovingly with her approximately 1-year-old baby. Then the mother makes her face immobile. The baby notices and tries to re-engage with her by smiling, then by pointing, then shrieking and finally crying.
The good news, Dr. Levine says, is that attachment style can change. Experts say couples need to tell each other what they need and be specific. For example, they can say, "I know it's difficult for you to be affectionate in front of my friends, but at home I really need a hug every day."
Does your partner or spouse make you feel that your well-being is your own responsibility, and not his or hers?
'You take care of your needs, I'! ll take care of mine,' is the credo of the Avoidant attachment style.
Do you often worry that your partner will stop loving you?
People who think relationships are immensely fragile and any wrong move can trigger the end tend to have an Anxious attachment style.
Do you dislike being dependent on your spouse or partner?
'Dependency' is a dirty word to Avoidants, who believe they should be self-reliant.
'You take care of your needs, I'! ll take care of mine,' is the credo of the Avoidant attachment style.
Do you often worry that your partner will stop loving you?
People who think relationships are immensely fragile and any wrong move can trigger the end tend to have an Anxious attachment style.
Do you dislike being dependent on your spouse or partner?
'Dependency' is a dirty word to Avoidants, who believe they should be self-reliant.
The Fords worked on their differences, and now Ms. Ford gives her husband hugs when he comes home and before bed. She has become more comfortable holding hands and often initiates it. Mr. Ford has altered his expectations and doesn't take his wife's lack of verbal or physical expression personally. He also pays attention to the other ways she tells him she loves him: planning special weekends together, washing his hunting clothes, preparing and freezing meals before he goes camping. "We've moved to a mutual center," Mr. Ford says. "It comes from communication."
—Email Elizabeth Bernstein at bonds@wsj.com or follow her column at www.Facebook.com/EBernsteinWSJ.
Write to Elizabeth Bernstein at Bonds@wsj.com
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