On Oct. 6th, Spring Hill College hosted a virtual town hall meeting where students, faculty, and staff could have their questions answered surrounding the recent announcement of the tuition reduction planned for August 2021.

Questions were presented by both Student Government Association Vice President Dionte Rudolph and Spring Hill College President Joe Lee. Not only did President Joe Lee provide answers to questions asked, but Vice-President of Enrollment Management Gary Bracken and Vice President of Finance and Account Rhonda Shirazi answered questions as well. The Spring Hill leaders were unable to answer all the questions submitted to the Town Hall, but they answered each question they were able to with detail and precision.

One of the first questions Rudolph presented to Gary Bracken was, “Could you elaborate on the rationale behind the tuition cut? How exactly will this help Spring Hill?” Bracken responded with a slideshow depicting the competitive environment and the disadvantages that “Spring Hill has faced for a long time”. With the $21,100 tuition reset, Bracken confirmed that Spring Hill is “pretty much the low cost-provider now” of private institutions in the south region of the country. “It is expected to increase enrollment,” Bracken affirmed when asked how the price drop would affect enrollment at the college.

Rhonda Shirazi was asked by Rudolph to answer a hard-hitting question: “Is the college in a secure-enough financial position to make this change?” “We are,” was Shirazi’s immediate response, “In recent years, we have had operational deficits, but we have very valuable assets.” She confirmed that looking ahead toward the 2021 fiscal year, the school had to make “some difficult decisions and budget cuts due to the declining student revenue”, but was working towards a balanced budget. 

Shirazi spoke of Spring Hill’s long-term financial status positively. “There’s a lot of good news for Spring Hill. We’ve been very successful in securing grants, over $5 million in grants will be coming to the college in the next 5 years.” She also cited Spring Hill’s expansion into online learning and certification programs as helping to diversify the college’s revenue stream.  “It’s a strong future for Spring Hill, “ said Shirazi in closing.