Some say sta­tis­tics can be manip­u­lated to tell what­ever story you want to tell.

During the Fall 2010 semes­ter, Ferris State University’s enroll­ment of 14,381 stu­dents ranked ninth amongst the 15 pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties in Michigan. Ferris’ enroll­ment has grown by 14.36 per­cent since the Fall 2006 semes­ter. It would make sense then that the tuition and room and board fees it charges would carry a sim­i­lar rank­ing. However, this is not the case.

According to the 2010-11 Fact Book pub­lished by the Office of Institutional Research and Testing at Ferris State University, Ferris has the fifth high­est tuition rate for in-state under­grad­u­ates at $9,930 per year based on 15 cred­its per semes­ter. Additionally, Ferris ranks sec­ond in room and board cost at $8,580. The total annual cost of $18,510 per year ranks fourth over­all and is higher than Central Michigan, Western Michigan and Grand Valley State.

Ferris State University is oper­ated as a not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion and there­fore does not report net income as a busi­ness would. However, all non­profit orga­ni­za­tions are required to pub­lish and release finan­cial state­ments. Ferris reported $183 mil­lion in total rev­enue dur­ing the 2010-11 fis­cal year. Tuition and fees accounted for 71.7 per­cent of the university’s total revenue.

Since a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion spends the same amount as it earns, its rev­enues and expen­di­tures are equal. Of the $183 mil­lion spent dur­ing the 2010-11 fis­cal year, 8.9 per­cent was spent toward stu­dent assis­tance. Ferris expended $128.9 mil­lion on salaries, wages and ben­e­fits for its employees.

Ferris State uses num­bers to pro­mote itself, just as any busi­ness or other uni­ver­sity does. The mar­ket­ing cam­paigns often show how enroll­ment is increas­ing rapidly and how the reten­tion rate is 70 per­cent. They usu­ally don’t men­tion the ris­ing tuition or room and board costs.

All the num­bers pre­sented are accu­rate; they just get to choose which ones are men­tioned. n