We live in a time of striking contradiction. Despite the rise of technologies that purport to connect and inform us, an alarming number of people report feeling distanced from one another and increasingly unable to distinguish headlines that are true from those that are false. Each year brings new platforms for engaging with others, and yet civil dialogue feels harder to come by.
St. John’s offers what this moment demands. Here, students read deeply, listen intently, and reason carefully, in the company of fellow thinkers who are doing the same. This is liberal education as it has been understood for millennia and practiced at St. John’s since 1937, when Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan founded the New Program in response to a rising tide of propaganda and the erosion of open and honest debate.
Nearly ninety years later, students at St. John’s gather in small classes to learn in much the same manner. Classes are still discussion-based, still centered on enduring works of human thought and the questions they pose. What has changed, and changed dramatically, is both the cost of providing this education and the amount that families can realistically afford to pay.
How St. John’s Has Responded to Rising Costs
St. John’s is committed to keeping the Program accessible to students of all backgrounds and ensuring that classroom conversations reflect a breadth of experiences and perspectives. Concerned that students were being priced out of this education, the college took the bold step of reducing tuition by a third in 2018, cutting the published price from over $52,000 to $35,000 and making St. John’s one of the most affordable of all small, liberal arts colleges. The current tuition of $43,392 is still lower than it was a decade ago—and far lower than it would be if St. John’s had kept the $52,000 price tag and allowed it to rise with inflation. Nevertheless, tuition remains out of reach for many families, and St. John’s has responded with additional financial aid. On average, students pay only $23,331 a year, including room and board.
Our Philanthropy-Centered Financial Model
Even as revenue from students has declined, St. John’s has invested more in their experience, enhancing the academic, health and wellness, and career support available on both campuses. To meet these commitments, the college shifted to a financial model in which alumni and friends, through their giving, help to offset the shrinking role of tuition and other student revenue in covering the actual cost of a St. John’s education. This philanthropy-centered model rests on two pillars: income from the endowment and generous gifts offered each year to the college, especially through the Fund for St. John’s.
The St. John’s Endowment: Long-Term Sustainability
The St. John’s Endowment, which has doubled in value over the past decade, consists of permanently invested gifts that generate annual income for the college. It is a healthy and growing resource that is built to sustain the college over the long term—but with spending limited to a fixed percentage each year, it is less of an answer to immediate needs.
The Fund for St. John’s: Flexible, Immediate Support
The Fund for St. John’s is the college’s source of immediate operating support and is the form of giving that is most urgently needed today. Unlike income from the endowment, gifts to the Fund for St. John’s are entirely unrestricted. These gifts can be used, for example, to meet a student’s emergency appeal for financial aid; bring provocative, thoughtful guest speakers to the college; or expand the Summer Academy seminars that introduce a quarter of undergraduates to this education. And because the Fund for St. John’s has no cap, its impact is limited only by what the St. John’s community is willing to give.
Read what students have to say about the impact of giving.
Gifts to the Fund for St. John’s are what the college relies on most, because they alone can go wherever the need is greatest, but other funds, such as Johnnie Scholarships and the Graduate Institute Fund, are also critical components of the college’s philanthropy-centered financial model. Like gifts to the Fund for St. John’s, they make an immediate difference and address many of the same priorities.
How You Can Help
There is no education better suited to meeting the challenges of our day than a St. John’s education, and no better time than now to strengthen one of the principal pillars that sustains it. Alumni and friends are invited to help grow the Fund for St. John’s with a gift and to consider establishing a recurring gift or a three-year pledge.
