Ryan Shilling

Ryan Shilling

By Jacinda Sicari (Whetstone Staff Writer)

When junior Ryan Shilling went up to the business office to sign up for summer classes he got quite a shock.

“When I asked how much it was going to be they said $575 per credit,” he said.

According to a faculty member, Wesley College’s Board of Trustees approved an increase in to the summer class tuition last spring.

Instead of last summer’s $230 per credit, it was raised to $575.

Several students expressed outrage about the increase to professors, advisors, and even the vice president of academic affairs.

Shilling said he wants affordable summer classes to stay on track and graduate in four years. Without this class, he said, he would have had to stay an extra semester – or an extra year if the class was only offered in the spring.

By raising the price to more than double the amount, Shilling wasn’t the only one who was going to have a hard time graduating on time.

“I missed a semester due to injury my freshman year,” said junior Kevin Johnson. “Summer courses have been my way to stay on track since then.”

Shilling said he had to speak out.

“I went to both my advisor and the department head and told them because they were the ones telling me to take this course,” he said.

Students weren’t the only ones surprised.

Jack Barnhardt, the director of the summer advantage program at Wesley, and Jeffrey Gibson, vice president of academic affairs, didn’t know either.

“I got a phone call from Gibson last week asking if I knew anything about the price increase and I didn’t,” Barnhardt said.

Barnhardt said this price was raised last spring to the price of what a graduate student would usually pay to take a class.

People such as Shilling were upset that so few people knew, especially in the administration.

“I feel like it is ignorant,” he said. “If so many people are going to be affected, how could they not know?”

Johnson said he wasn’t as surprised when he found out nobody knew about the raise.

“I feel like this campus is constantly hiding things,” he said. “When they find out that there is going to be a raise in tuition, students should get an email immediately.”

The tuition has now been lowered back down, but not to last year’s price. Summer classes now cost $250 per credit hour, an increase of $20. It still costs $60 a week to stay in the dorms.

Online classes also have increased $20; they are now $310 per credit hour.