On April 5 Chancellor Wrighton will hold a news conference announcing a tuition hike for next year. According to Wrighton this was necessary because of increased costs. When asked for a response student leaders refered all questions to their parents.

Nice sarcasm Bret, but here's the thing: WashU tuition already goes up each year at a pretty alarming rate; likewise the cost of food at the Bon Appetit venues is pretty high. By the way, they don't take credit cards, so you can't blame service charges. They only accept residential meal plan 'points' and cash.

While I'm not involved in the SWA, I support their efforts to make students and the broader community aware of the University's contracting practices. The City of St. Louis has a living wage policy (although its enforcement may not be consistent); why can't WashU?

Full-time employees of the university such as faculty, administrators, and most clerical staff, have access to a great array of benefits, including a tuition remission program. Employees of contractors including Bon Appetit (food service), Catering St. Louis (faculty club food service), Top Care (grounds maintenance), and Aramark (building maintenance) have no such benefits.

And don't even get me started on graduate student health insurance...

The thing is that most students get student aid so the tuition impact in terms of parents is even modest. Where it matters most are for professional students who finance their education and foreign students.

Agreeing with Joe, the living wage would only mildly impact tuition--the increase in costs is coming from increasing health care costs, the fact that education doesn't benefit from improvements in technology (teacher student ratios aren't impacted by better technology), and increasing competition between universities causing more resources towards capturing the best students.