I don’t understand why some colleges are raising their prices when everyone is already saying higher education is too expensive.

Max Denning of The Ithacan reports.

Ithaca College announces tuition increase for 2015–16

The Ithaca College Board of Trustees has approved a tuition increase for the 2015–16 academic year.

The college announced March 2 tuition for next year will be $40,658, a 2.85-percent increase from this year’s $39,532. With standard room and board, which will be $14,674, the total cost of attendance for 2015–16 will be $55,332, a 2.73-percent increase from this year.

In the college’s press release, they said 2.85 percent is the smallest percentage increase of tuition in 50 years.

In a letter sent to parents, Ithaca College President Tom Rochon credited the small tuition increase to the college’s initiation of zero-based budgeting, which is a practice in which all expenses must be justified for each new period, and the Strategic Sourcing initiative where the college purchases items in bulk from a single source.

The consumer price index, which is a measure of changes in the retail prices of a constant marketbasket of goods and services, rose 0.9 percent in the 12-month period starting in December 2014. This was the smallest annual increase in five years.