Butler tuition rates have been raised by 4% for the upcoming school year. Graphic by Lily O’Connor.
LAUREN FISCHER | STAFF REPORTER | lrfischer@butler.edu
An additional financial burden is being placed on students’ shoulders. Butler recently announced a tuition increase for the 2026-27 school year in an email sent out to students and families. Full-time student rates will increase from $48,900 to $50,860.
Director of strategic communications Mark Apple described the $1,960 increase as a realistic outcome while Butler continues to operate at a budget deficit.
For the past few years, Butler has spent more than it is bringing in. The university’s administration continues to look for ways to efficiently deal with the deficit.
Many students have been disappointed by this announcement, as paying for college can be a significant financial burden.
Sophomore English major Chelsea Copeland expressed concern for this change after watching her peers transfer due to past tuition increases.
“[Butler’s administration] might not think that $2,000 is a lot of money, but it is,” Copeland said. “It’s enough to make people have to [transfer] out of their dream school. Two thousand dollars is not a limited amount of money. [It’s] a game-changer.”
Copeland explained that she will now have to pay off thousands of additional dollars in student loans than she had planned. She also voiced concern that Butler was not allocating enough money to causes important to students.
“Last year [the administration] promised that the $2,000 would benefit students,” Copeland said. “If you look outside of Fairview, there isn’t even a plowed sidewalk for us to get to…the dining hall hours still aren’t open that late.”
Copeland continued to mention plumbing issues in dormitories, club funding and mold in academic buildings as issues she believes the university should prioritize.
Apple said this choice was primarily an investment in the people at Butler, noting a few of the costs involved.
“Insurance [such as] health insurance and medical insurance [help us to] have top faculty and staff that can continue our goals of becoming a nationally recognized university,” Apple said.
Last year, tuition was increased by $2,330 — a 5% increase compared to this year’s 4%. While the administration does not know what future years will bring in terms of tuition increases or decreases, Apple noted that annual adjustments are common at universities.
“The cost of inflation is rising, costs of healthcare are rising, energy costs are rising, [and] that [all] affects us,” Apple said. “To think that we’re going to be able to continue to operate at the same amount with the same revenues every year isn’t realistic.”
Sophomore economics major Frankie Ponzio, a Morton-Finney scholar, said that even with the help of scholarships, this change is still very troubling for low-income students such as herself, as the scholarships do not increase with the tuition.
“When I got [the Morton-Finney] scholarship, it was with the intention that it was covering a majority of my tuition,” Ponzio said.
Ponzio was also upset with the lack of change she saw after last year’s increase, and believes that if tuition is being increased, it should be going towards causes that more students are passionate about.
“[Butler] should be investing in programs that will help a majority of [its] students,” Ponzio said. “[They could] put some of this money towards fighting the DEI causes that [Butler] said [it] stands so strongly against.”
This tuition increase resulted from both inflation and the university’s current goals, with hopes that Butler will continue operating as it has in the past, or even better. Despite this, students remain concerned about whether the university will follow through on its goals. The university will continue to explore more efficient methods for cost containment to build a better future for students and faculty.
“I need to see some kind of progressive action taken … and more immediate effects for the betterment of this campus,” Ponzio said.
