By Victoria Durgin, Digital Media Editor
When students think of what their tuition dollars are spent on every year, they might think about food or the lab equipment they use.
They might imagine the cost of the gym equipment they run or the outdoor furniture they relax on.
After all, the costs of operating a college add up quickly, and that cost is then passed to students.
As Michael Coyne, the vice president for finance and administration said, “education is very expensive.”
What students commonly fail to think of is the highest expense for virtually any school in the country: people.
Coyne said the university spends more on its employees than any other segment of the annual budget.
Susquehanna spent 39 percent of the annual budget on salaries paid to teaching faculty and support staff in the 2015-16 academic year, according to the 2016-17 Susquehanna Factbook. An additional 12 percent of the total budget was spent on benefit packages for those faculty.
That results in a combined 51 percent of the total university budget spent solely on faculty and staff.
That percentage is similar across the past 10 years of Susquehanna’s finances, and is also a national trend.
The factbook reports the average salary for professors not in the Sigmund Weis School of Business (SWSB) was $90,740 in 2015-16. The average salary when SWSB professors are included in the total rises to $93,000 for the same year.
Associate professors make less than full professors, according to the factbook. The average salary for an associate professor not including SWSB data was $70,130 in 2015-16. Assistant professors made on average $58,843 within the same year.
Data on staff salaries was not provided in the factbook, though these salaries do vary based on job title and number of hours worked.
According to Amanda Ripley in a piece for The Atlantic, most American colleges and universities spend large parts of their budgets on operational costs, including salaries. These figures include not just faculty and staff but also upperlevel management positions, the hiring of which have increased over the past two decades, according to a report from CNBC.
For Susquehanna, the next highest expense after salaries and benefits is characterized as “operating expenses and supplies” in the factbook.
These expenses are essentially what the university needs to teach students. It covers research, academic support and student services, according to an audit report done for the university in 2017. The records for the 2015-16 year show the university spent 14.8 percent of the total budget on this group of costs.
Additionally, the university spent nearly 12 percent of the annual budget on contract expenses. These contracts are with outside vendors who provide services to the students and staff at Susquehanna.
The largest of these vendors is Aramark, the food service provider for the university.
“We’re really paying people that work for other places,” Coyne said.
Of these services, Aramark is the most expensive, according to Coyne. Susquehanna also holds contracts with an outside cleaning service and with tax preparers and independent auditors.
Coyne said the contracts are often evaluated for the cost of the service in relation to the benefits Susquehanna gets from the contractor.
“We think we are okay with cost compared to quality, especially where food is concerned,” Coyne stated.
All other expenses for the university, including interest on loans, repairs and utilities and depreciation make up the remainder of the budget, according to the factbook.
The budgeting figures of the 2015-16 year are very similar to budgeting of previous years.
Faculty and staff-related expenditures have consistently been the university’s highest expense.
According to Coyne, the university did cut health care and other benefits for employees several years ago to reduce spending. However, costs continue to increase over time. This increase is not fully covered by the tuition increases the university has implemented.
Coyne said the increase in the costs of running the university are starting to outpace the increase in tuition set by the board of trustees. This is in part due to the discounted tuition rates students receive, especially in their first year at the university.
Susquehanna discounts the advertised tuition price commonly referred to as the “sticker price.” Students’ scholarships are not provided through an outside source of money given to the university but rather by the university not asking the student to pay the full amount as listed.
These discounts lower the revenue generated by each student for the university budget. The revenue from students makes up 87 percent of the total revenue the university receives in a given year.
Coyne said the university understands the high cost of college is difficult for students and families but that it is also difficult for colleges and universities to stay open.
“It’s hard to pay to come here, it’s hard to keep the place open, and that’s probably how it should be,” Coyne said.
