Benedict College

year cycle yet. While COVID-19 has interrupted our plan, my hope is that we will continue to realize those gains.” BVM: Speaking of COVID-19, have you had to go to an online curriculum? Artis: “In March, we made the decision to close the campus like most other higher education institutions. Recognizing that our students were low-wealth, first-generation kids whose parents couldn’t simply charge a plane ticket or take off their hourly jobs to come pick them up in the middle of the week, we did something pretty unheard of. We raised close to $55,000 in about $28,000 per year is quite significant. In response to this concern, we took a herculean step and implemented a tuition reset. We reduced our tuition fees by 26 percent, bringing the cost of attendance to about $22,000 a year. “At the same time we reduced the tuition, we increased the admission standards. The goal was to increase the quality of the student while decreasing the cost so that a talented student believed that a Benedict education was accessible to them. I am pleased to say that we achieved the desired outcome. We are seeing double digit increases in student retention and graduation rate and we haven’t had a full four-