For $35,725, you can purchase a 2008 Mercedes-Benz C Class--a 268 horsepower luxury sedan.

For $500 less, you can attend SPU next year.

The price tag for Seattle Pacific in 2008-2009 will be $35,271, according to an e-mail sent out to students from President Phil W. Eaton, yesterday. The total increase from last year is $2,061, including tuition, room and board and the Associated Students of Seattle Pacific (ASSP) and technology fee.

The increase in tuition was approved Friday at the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees, at which Eaton presented the budget for review.

The e-mail outlined the increases individually and the percentage increase from last year. The costs in the e-mail referred to tuition for a full-time undergraduate student with a traditional residence hall double room and a platinum meal plan.

The increases include:

- Tuition, at $26,457, a 6.75 percent increase of $1,674;

- Student fees are now $360, up from $345 last year;

- Room and board is increased by $372, at a cost of $8,454.

Marj Johnson, vice president of Admissions and University Relations, said that university officials look closely at the budget before it's presented to the Board of Trustees to ensure that students are receiving the best deal possible. She said that, while the cost may look steep, students get what they pay for.

"We are absolutely tuition-dependent," she said. "The best solution would be to break that dependence with donors and outside revenues."

She said that officials continually watch national trend lines and watch the number of families who pay the full amount for tuition. When that number declines, she said, it would be an indicator that tuition is too high.

Johnson said that SPU is an overall good buy, and pointed to Eaton's e-mail, full of compliments toward the university.

"What you have to do is be very conscientious to all the different pieces, and it's not a task we take lightly," she said. "We're committed to quality, so that what students get is worth their investment."

Johnson said that Eaton looks closely at national trend lines when assessing prices, and that the increases to tuition hold steady with the national rate of inflation. The total increase is 6.21 percent, according to Eaton's e-mail.

The total increase is down from 7.49 percent in both the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years.

Tuition 10 years ago, for the 1998-1999 academic year, cost $14,541.

In Eaton's e-mail, he mentioned that SPU was "again ranked by US News and World Report as a best value at No. 4 in the West for 2008." The report actually ranks SPU as No. 5.

The e-mail also cited the increase of grants and scholarships by $2,062,000, an 8.6 percent increase. Faculty and staff salaries and benefit pools will increase by $2,689,000, Eaton said.

ASSP president Daniel Miller was on the student budget committee that helped approve the budget, and said the process was very complex. He said that the committee met with vice president of Business and Planning Don Mortensen, as well as associate vice president of Business and Planning Craig Kispert.

"We made recommendations about where money should be invested and needs we saw," Miller said. The meetings were for the entire SPU budget, but also included student fee recommendations as well as tuition recommendations.

Sophomore Shantel Lockett said that she is not planning on returning to SPU because the cost is too high. Lockett is paying with a mix of the Presidential Scholarship and the AMES Minority Scholarship that covers about $12,000. She said that the rest of her costs are covered through loans that come with high interest rates.

"Increasing the teacher pay is a great idea, but that equals a 6.7 percent increase?" she said. "The tuition is [rising] and they say that financial aid is [rising], but for me, it won't because the aid I have now is going to stay the same."

Lockett said that she loves attending SPU but that everything is overpriced.

"I'm paying for my own education, and I thought that a school like SPU would be able to offer [me] more financial aid than they have been, especially as an African American woman," she said. "The makeup of Seattle is nearly 10 percent African American, and a private institution that is committed to racial reconciliation should be committed to holding that percentage as well."

Lockett plans to attend community college to get back on her feet financially and then study abroad.

Lockett said, when she first came to SPU, she attended the AMES scholar banquet where university officials told her they wanted to make sure she was well supported as an African American woman. She said she was told they would help her to pay for school, and that they wanted to see her to graduation.

"In reality they brought me here and kind of dropped me off," she said. "They haven't really held their promise."

Shawnrene Keppel contributed reporting to this article.