Two documents displayed at the Mar. 28 Faculty Senate meeting are helping shed a different light on Butler University’s tuition increase for the next academic year.

The documents provide a list of 25 schools Butler most often competes with for potential students, or the most common cross-applicant schools.

One compares tuition and monetary costs of attending those universities versus those for attending Butler while the other looks at how many students Butler wins from and loses to those 25 schools during the application process.

Bruce Arick, vice president for finance, presented the documents at the meeting.

Arick said this information is compiled to help assess how Butler officials should adjust tuition each school year.

Looking at the books

According to one document, each Butler student is paying $33,138 in tuition and fees for the 2012-13 school year. When that figure is compared to the tuition statistics from Butler’s 25 most common cross-application schools, Butler’s tuition ranks ninth highest.

“We feel pretty comfortable there,” Arick said. “We’re not trying to proactively move up or move down (the list).

“If we were to move down, would that be a bad thing? No, not necessarily.”

Of the 10 schools Butler has the most cross-applications with, only three—DePauw University, University of Dayton and Marquette University—have higher tuition than Buter this academic year.

Dayton’s and Marquette’s 2012-13 tuitions, however, are within just a few hundred dollars of Butler’s—and it has been that way for several years.

Arick said this statistic is merely a coincidence.

“We don’t work with those two schools to plan (tuition increases),” Arick said. “We don’t know what they’re going to with their tuition increases until they actually announce them.”

But Arick also said Butler officials use cross-application information to better understand which schools they’re competing against for students and how Butler compares to those universities price-wise.

“We overlay (the documents) to say, ‘Okay, we kind of know who our top 25 are and how we’re competing. How are we price-wise with these schools, from the sticker price?’” Arick said. “Between the two (documents) is really a pretty good approach for us to consider what we should do tuition-wise for the upcoming year to compete with the schools we compete for students with.”

Tuition based on class size

Arick said another major factor under consideration each year is if Butler is meeting its target class. He described not meeting a target class as “a big red flag for schools and their pricing strategy.”

Butler’s target for this year was 1,000, which was surpassed by 111 students. Since Butler has been hitting its target freshman classes consistently in recent years, officials have been able to raise tuition.

That may not be the case at other schools, Arick said.

“Interestingly enough, if you look at some of the schools that have announced very low price increases or zero (increase)—and I would not put Purdue in that category—it would not surprise me if you found they’re not hitting their enrollment targets,” Arick said. “It’s a significant variable, especially at private schools.”

Many of Butler’s top 25 cross-application schools have steadily raised tuition year after year since the 2007-08 school year. In fact, of Butler’s top 10 cross-application schools, only Miami University of Ohio has had any sort of tuition freeze in that timeframe.

Butler’s main competitors in that top 10 have been Indiana University and Purdue University.

Competing against the freeze

Indiana has maintained the top spot in number of cross-applications with Butler since 2004. Purdue has held the second spot on that list since 2004.

Butler and Indiana shared 1,387 applicants in 2012. Of that number, 19 percent ended up enrolling at Butler, 28 percent at Indiana and 53 percent at a third school.

Butler wins over a few more students when it comes to competing with Purdue, gaining 21 percent of the cross-applicants between the schools.

One reason some students, specifically in-state ones, choose Indiana or Purdue over Butler is lower tuition.

“If you were to look purely at cost, especially if you look only at the sticker price, there’s no comparison,” said Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management. “What we try to do is make sure we talk about more than just cost and the value that comes out of a Butler education.”

Weede said Butler’s ability to offer students more financial aid is one way in which it attracts some cross-applicants. He said the school is putting $54 million toward financial aid for the 2013-14 school year.

More for the money

For out-of-state students, Arick said Indiana’s and Purdue’s tuition prices are far more comparable to Butler’s.

For example, in the 2009-10 academic year, Indiana’s in-state tuition was $8,613. However, out-of-state tuition was set at $26,160, a figure that didn’t leave such a wide gap in tuition between Indiana and Butler.

“We love going head to head with Purdue and IU on out-of-state students,” Arick said. “The price point is not as big of a variable for those students.”

Weede said Butler’s admissions office works hard to help potential students and their parents look beyond the hit their pocketbooks could take if they choose Butler.

Weede said he thinks Butler’s on-campus environment is something that draws many students who also apply to schools like Indiana or Purdue.

“One of the things I think is great about Butler is people like being here,” Weede said. “The classes are smaller, and the relationships with faculty members are more personal.”

State of the economy

Arick and Weede said Butler officials have to contend with the economy when considering tuition increases.

Arick said he believes the days of Butler raising tuition by more than 4 percent from year to year are limited.

“We can’t ignore general economic conditions that our students and families are subject to,” Arick said. “It’s a balance we have to maintain.”

Weede said he always remembers a discussion he had with a guidance counselor while working in Carroll College’s admissions office when thinking about tuition increases.

“He had a daughter enrolled in the school, and he said this with love: ‘I think you people sit around and say it’s only 4 percent. For me, it’s $1,000,’” Weede said. “I’ve tried to never lose sight of that.”

Butler University is continuing to identify energy improvements on campus with the welcoming of Amanda Doenges, the new campus engineer.

Upcoming projects include lighting controls and daylight sensors in the front lobby and the weightlifting and pool areas of the Health and Recreation Complex. The sensors will dim or turn lights off that are not needed when enough daylight is outside.

“The HRC is such a beautiful building, and it has such good solar exposure,” said Rich Michal, executive director of facilities. “It doesn’t make sense to have lights on in the middle of a sunny day.”

Another improvement Doenges and the maintenance department are looking at is occupancy sensors in the HRC restrooms and locker rooms that automatically turn off lights when they’re not needed.

Doegnes said they hope to have the HRC light sensors up and running after Spring Break.

Identifying energy improvements also includes Hinkle renovations. Doenges said she is looking at LED lighting and seeing how much energy and money could be saved for the university.

Doenges, whose first day on the job was Jan. 14, said she has a passion for researching energy-efficient alternatives, especially in the sector of higher education.

“My senior year of college, I took an energy efficiency class as an elective, and I fell in love,” Doenges said. “I’ve kind of always been interested in helping the environment and looking at the bigger picture, like how I can make an impact to save the world.”

Doenges went to the University of Dayton, where she received her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and her master’s in renewable and clean energy.

After college, she worked at Heapy Engineering, where she was the LEED project manager.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Engery and Environmental Design, is a sustainability rating system for buildings. The system is funded by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Schrott Center is pursuing LEED certification right now, Doenges said.

Senior Project Manager Craig Hardee said he will not know for sure about the building’s certification for a couple of months.

Buildings can earn LEED certification through a point-rating system scale after meeting certain LEED prerequisites.

Hardee said the points are based on how well the building does environmentally and how much energy the building can save.

The building earns points for the rain garden on its exterior, which naturally filters rainwater and reduces the collection of water in a drainpipe.

The building has occupancy sensors in the rooms to shut off lights when they are not needed. It also has water fountains and toilets that use less water, Hardee said.

Michal said they have committed to ensure all new buildings on campus will be LEED certified.

Doenges said she already has a sense of what working at Butler will be like.

Doenges said she likes all aspects of her job as well as how well the different colleges work together to make energy plans.

She uses listervs to ask other colleges how they are dealing with energy-efficiency issues on campus. She said she receives tons of responses and feedback on dealing with certain issues.

“I’d like to get us to the point where we’re recognized as being a super sustainable and energy efficient campus amongst all of our peers, especially in Indiana if not nationally recognized for it,” Doenges said.

Michal said the university always had a commitment to sustainability and has been at the forefront for years with different projects going on around campus.

“We want to be good financial stewards because energy and water are expensive, finite resources,” Michal said. “We need to do everything we can to not only be sustainable and reduce our carbon footprint but also to save money and make sure that the students who are investing in their education are getting the best quality and most efficient service that they can.”

In recent weeks, reports from ESPN and CBS led many to believe that Butler may switch athletic conferences within the next few years.

Butler could make the transition from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10 conference and replace departing Temple.

The Owls of Temple are currently part of the A-10 in all sports except football.

For football, Temple is an associate member of the Mid-American Conference.

Temple is joining the Big East next season for football and all other sports the following year.

According to reports, Butler may likely be the team to fill the spot left by Temple in the A-10.

Butler would bring all of its athletic teams to the A-10 except for football, which is a member of the Pioneer Football League.

The change would go into effect beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.

Other schools that ESPN and CBS consider to be candidates for filling the A-10 vacancy are Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason.

If the crossover is made, Butler would be the second-smallest university in the league.

Butler would have more students than only St. Bonaventure, which has an enrollment of approximately 2,400.

Butler’s athletic programs would compete against schools with more than 20,000 students, such as Charlotte, George Washington University and the Massachusetts.

However, most of the schools in the A-10 have between 6,000 and 15,000 students.

The Butler athletics department declined to comment on conference affiliation or changes, other than Associate Athletic Director Jim McGrath saying that “we are members of the Horizon League.”

The move would likely benefit Butler’s men’s basketball team, which competed in back-to-back NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011.

This season, the A-10 placed four teams in the NCAA tournament—Xavier, St. Bonaventure, Temple and Saint Louis. The Horizon League sent only Detroit to the Big Dance.

The Bulldogs would see an increase in competition and would have a traditional conference rival in Xavier.

Senior guard Rotnei Clarke has experience playing in a collegiate athletic conference more prominent than the Horizon League.

Clarke transferred from Arkansas—a member of the Southeastern Conference—last year and sat out this season with a year of eligibility remaining.

“It’s a cool thing being able to play in a power conference,” Clarke said.

The A-10 is not nearly as big as the SEC, but the A-10 tends to draw more attention from major media outlets—specifically ESPN—than the Horizon League.

Clarke said the media exposure he experienced during his time in the SEC was a good experience.

Clarke will graduate from Butler prior to any of Butler’s teams competing in A-10 play, but he said he thinks the men’s basketball team would still measure up in the new conference if they moved.

“I feel like we would compete in the A-10 for sure. No doubt about it,” Clarke said.

Like the men’s basketball team, the other squads would see an increase in competition but not necessarily unfamiliar opponents.

Men’s basketball, women’s soccer, baseball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis all played or will already play at least one A-10 team during this academic school year.

Baseball coach Steve Farley said both Xavier and Dayton, two teams from the A-10 that Butler has faced or will face this season, were in the conference when he took his current job more than 20 years ago.

Farley  also said he would be OK with the new competition, but he is wary of the way the conference is spread out.

“Fifteen-hour bus rides to places like Massachusetts, Rhode Island and upstate New York don’t excite me that much,” Farley said.

Volleyball coach Sharon Clark said she is not familiar with the A-10 but thinks it would be a little tougher from a traveling aspect as well.

As for football, scholarships are available for players in the A-10 but not in the PFL.

Reports indicate that if Butler jumped to the A-10, its football team would remain in the PFL.

Published March 28, 2012

The Horizon League has been in existence since 1979. Likewise, Butler has been a member of the Horizon League since the conference’s inception into NCAA Division I athletics.

As the saying goes, the two go together like peas in a pod.

This may be changing in the near future, however.

Butler could make a jump to the Atlantic 10 conference as a replacement for Temple, according to a report released by ESPN two weeks ago.

Associate athletic director Jim McGrath said that the report is merely speculation at this point and that Butler has not even received a phone call about such a jump from those in charge of the A-10 conference.

McGrath also said he has heard that Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason are possible replacements for Temple in the conference.

Upon hearing this, the question Butler athletes, coaches and fans should not be asking is “Will Butler make the jump?”

Instead, they should be asking why Butler would make such a move.

The recent success of the Butler men’s basketball team would seem to be the most obvious reason to move.

One of the teams the Bulldogs have played in recent seasons is Xavier, a member of the A-10 and a Sweet 16 finalist of this season’s NCAA tournament.

Moving to the A-10 would provide Butler with tougher competition both in and out of conference play. This could give Butler a better chance at the NCAA tournament.

This was despite the fact that Valparaiso finished with a better winning percentage than both Xavier and St. Bonaventure, another A-10 team that cracked the tournament field.

Better competition and a greater chance at making the NCAA tournament field each season would also bring more exposure to the school as a whole.

Butler might also like to join a conference that has some lucrative ties to corporate partners such as Powerade and Geico.

The A-10 primarily features East Coast schools.

However, Xavier, Dayton and Saint Louis are all Midwestern schools within the conference.

Also, the average enrollment between the two conferences is separated by fewer than 600 students.

However, the negatives of a conference jump may outweigh the positives in this case.

The effect of moving to a bigger conference could be troublesome to Butler’s other athletic teams.

Many of Butler’s athletic teams have to battle and claw their way through both non-conference and Horizon League play, and a berth in their respective NCAA tournaments is a great achievement.

The A-10 is not the Big East or Big Ten, but it is not a cakewalk of a conference either.

Butler’s athletic teams would have to make their way past 13 other teams instead of nine to achieve at least a conference championship.

In sports with individual competitions, some Butler athletes could go from being near the top of the Horizon League to the middle of the A-10 pack thanks to better competition.

Situations like this could factor into the loss of potential athletic scholarships, costing current and future Butler students.

The fact that most of the A-10’s teams are on the East Coast also changes the amount of time Butler’s student-athletes would have to spend on the road.

Currently, Butler’s longest in-conference road trip is approximately 350 miles to Youngstown State. Eleven of the 14 teams in the A-10 are further from Butler than that.

Butler has stability in the Horizon League. If something is not broken, it does not need to be fixed.

Butler should not make this move simply for the money, increased recognition and benefit of the men’s basketball team.

If moving to the A-10 benefits Butler and all of its athletic teams, then the school should go for it. Otherwise, Butler should continue its tenure in the Horizon League.