Living through the worst economic crisis since the great depression has caused nearly all of us to stop, at least for a moment, and ask ourselves some tough questions: what do we really need to survive and what can we live without? Well, private colleges are no exception; they have asked themselves the same tough questions and their collective response led to a rather interesting conclusion: the smallest average increase in tuition and fees in 37 years, according to a survey conducted by NAICU. Can there be a positive outcome from all this belt tightening? I think so, because in the final analysis, we all will be forced--personally and "on a college-level"--to determine what's really important to us and our institutions and to identify what we really need and what we simply cannot live without. Is that really a bad thing?

-Jeff Papa