In early March, President Don Jeanes e-mailed the students and faculty to announce a 4.9-percent tuition increase for the 2009-2010 school year. According to Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bill Greer, the Board of Trustees approved a 7.5-percent increase in tuition at their fall meeting, but neither “they nor the administration was happy about having to do that. "The president and the cabinet made the decision later to limit the increase as much as possible," said Greer. "We cut everything we could and put together the tightest budget in years so that the increase would be below 5 percent."
Most Milligan students plan to cope with the recent tuition increase by picking up more hours at work, taking out more loans or remaining a part-time student. Few students are not changing anything at all. Freshman Cara Beth Quisenberry, a full-time commuter from Unicoi, works hard to continue attending Milligan.