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Higher education leaders must lower tuition costs as Syracuse University faces questions over its nearly $100,000 annual cost of attendance, Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking told Fox News Digital.
“I think it’s incumbent upon us as college presidents and institutions to say, ‘Can we start to turn the dial back and lower costs every year for students?’ And I think we can do that if we work together,” Docking told Fox News Digital.
“The Syracuse University situation is simply a bellwether for the structural crisis facing higher education nationally,” Docking said. “It’s no different than at most private institutions, many regional publics as well.”
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Docking, who has served as president of Michigan-based Adrian College for more than 20 years, previously made headlines when he testified before Congress about innovation and lowering costs in higher education.
He co-authored the book “Crisis in Higher Education: A Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges in America” and is credited with doubling Adrian College’s enrollment since taking the helm in 2005.
Adrian College President Jeffrey Docking is credited with doubling enrollment at Adrian College since he started working there. He has also been credited with tripling the college’s endowment. (Adrian College)
Docking was reacting to a Wall Street Journal report detailing Syracuse University’s steep enrollment and financial challenges. The Central New York-based institution is saddled with nearly $500 million in debt tied to new residence halls and is facing a 1.5% budget shortfall as it struggles to attract enough students to cover its operational costs.
“The problem with Syracuse is that the school thinks of itself as like an Ivy, but it’s not,” former Syracuse University Center for International Services Director Juan Tavares told The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported that, in 2025, those underlying weaknesses collided with a high-profile federal crackdown on student visas, causing Syracuse’s international enrollment numbers for both undergraduate and graduate programs to plummet by half. Syracuse also failed to meet its overall enrollment targets, forcing the school to issue emergency financial aid packages to attract incoming freshmen.
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As students and families increasingly question the return on investment of a college degree, Syracuse increased its tuition to $69,180 for the current academic year, up from $40,458 in the 2013-14 school year. When factoring in room, board, fees and other expenses, the university’s total cost of attendance can reach $98,544.
Fox News Digital reached out to Syracuse University for comment.
Rising college costs have coincided with total U.S. student loan balances reaching $1.65 trillion, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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The Syracuse University campus in Syracuse, N.Y., Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Docking called for a total “reengineering of higher education” to address the crisis.
“[Syracuse is] falling victim to the perfect storm that’s out there with international enrollment being down, people questioning the value of higher education and the fact that many schools are dealing with declining high school graduation rates, especially in northern states,” Docking said.
“There’s nothing wrong with Syracuse University. It’s a fantastic place and will remain fantastic,” he added. “But they are just victims of what needs to be a reengineering of American higher education in the years ahead.”
Syracuse University Chancellor and President J. Michael Haynie acknowledged the shortfall, insisting that higher ed leaders must reevaluate their value proposition to students and families.
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Docking also co-founded Rize Education, a course-sharing platform that allows smaller colleges to collaborate and offer online classes without incurring massive overhead expenses. Through its partnership with Rize, Adrian College has added 27 majors, 13 minors and eight certificates in high-demand fields like business, technology, engineering and healthcare.
His efforts earned him an invitation to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee and helped Adrian College earn a spot among U.S. News & World Report’s Most Innovative Regional Universities in the Midwest three consecutive years.
Ever since Adrian College formed a partnership with Rize, the institution has launched 27 majors, 13 minors and 8 certificates in business, technology, engineering and healthcare. (Adrian College)
Docking argued that soaring tuition is driven by operational inefficiency and an insular culture that prevents institutions from working together like private-sector businesses. By sharing faculty across institutions via course-sharing, schools can bypass the hefty costs of hiring new full-time faculty.
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“Higher education institutions traditionally have been very inefficient. They’ve been very insular. They’ve not worked well together to drive down costs,” Docking concluded. “The reengineering has to be a massive effort to bring efficiency to existing institutions.”
