Bridgewater, Va.- At the Senate meeting on Monday, Nov. 25, students in the gallery expressed their concerns about rising tuition costs for the 2020-2021 academic year. 

President Bushman came to the senate meeting to discuss Bridgewater Colleges budget explaining the College’s annual revenue and expenses and why a tuition rise is necessary. 

The students spoke out that the College is making students pay more to make the college look better to the public by doing things like changing the parking and building a new library, yet the students are having problems that are leaving them unhappy. 

The students claimed that Wright Hall has been without hot water for approximately two weeks and that they were having custodial problems with the dorm not being kept clean. 

They also complained about having to pay more in tuition but the Take 5 in Bowman was taken away and replaced with a to-go box system at the KCC. They talked about its inconvenience and that they have to pay a one-time $5 fee to get the box. While $5 is a small amount of money, the students expressed this was on top of having to pay more per year and that something they enjoyed was taken away. 

Bushman addressed the student concerns. He said that students are not paying for the library; it was fully funded through private donations before construction began. 

In regard to the maintenance issues, he explained this may be due to the transition to a new cleaning company which was understaffed going into the year, but that he would look into things because student feedback is important. He also said he would look into the hot water issue because it sounded like a communication issue as the students had made multiple maintenance requests and heard nothing back. 

Bushman explained that tuition makes up 85 percent of the College’s annual operating revenue. Because the cost of things like salaries and maintenance go up every year, tuition has to go up as well; however, the College works to make this increase as small as possible for students. 

President Bushman also mentioned that the College gives a lot of financial aid to try and help this as well.