Utica College's Change in Pricing Strategy: One year later...

There is a good article by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel in The Washington Post on May 17th, "It's been almost a year since Utica College abandoned deep tuition discouts.  Here's what happened after."  Douglas-Gabriel focuses on the impact of Utica's decision to reduce tuition significantly and end discounting. 

Prevailing practices elsewhere are no longer bringing desired results, so it will be interesting if more institutions take this path. Douglas-Gabriel notes the issue of whether higher education is still a luxury good with people make decisions based on price.  This will also be interesting to watch in future years.  Has media attention on the cost of college in the post-2008 era or income disparity with stagnant wages for many changed economic behavior when it comes to decisions regarding where to go to college? 

Until we have a better sense of whether or how the cost-benefit equation has changed, I'd argue that you can't underestimate the importance of marketing the change in pricing policy both internally and externally....or, the need to firmly place pricing within a larger strategy to insure that every aspect of institutional life screams "quality."