The College's Board of Trustees voted this weekend to raise undergraduate tuition five percent from $20,805 to $21,846, the lowest rate of tuition increase since 1966.
Also at its meeting the Board voted to implement the Dartmouth Experience proposal, which calls for the East Wheelock cluster to become a mixed-class residential cluster with a faculty associate, a cluster dean and space to accommodate educational and social programs.
At their Winter term meeting this weekend, the Trustees increased the total charge for tuition, mandatory fees, room and board by 4.42 percent from $27, 039 to $28,233 -- the lowest increase in 30 years.
Last year tuition rose 6.45 percent and in 1994 it rose 6.94 percent.
Since 1989, annual tuition hikes have hovered around six percent.
The rate of increase in the price of a Dartmouth education has ballooned since 1965, reaching a peak between 1980 and 1985 when the average annual hike reached 12.2 percent.
College Vice President and Treasurer Lyn Hutton said the growth of external sources of financial aid and the success of the Will to Excel capital campaign enabled the College to lower its rate of tuition increase this year.
"Students are bringing in more external scholarships like National Merit and Rotary," she said. Hutton also said the financial position of the College has strengthened recently as the five-year-old Will to Excel campaign approaches its $500 million dollar goal.
Out of the eight schools in the Ivy League, Dartmouth charges the fourth highest tuition and the sixth highest total price, Hutton said.
Hutton said this year's slim tuition hike will allow the College to maintain that standing among its competitors."We think a lot of other schools will announce the same tight increases," Hutton said.
Hutton said there will be no increase in the price of a Dartmouth Dining Services meal plan and room rent will increase 4.5 percent.
Hutton said the Trustees will try to repeat this year's low increase in the future.
But she said that "without a crystal ball" she could not predict the College's future financial position, and thus, the price it must charge students.
She said this year the Trustees were adamant about keeping the increase to a minimum and that their concern is part of a national trend to control the astronomical cost of college education.
In 1989, the Trustees said they wanted to lower the rate of tuition increase in each successive year and to keep the rate closer to inflation, measured against the national price index for higher education.
Tuition increases were modest at Dartmouth's graduate school's as well. The cost of a year at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration will increase 5.3 percent to $23,700. Last year Tuck's tuition rose 6 percent.
For the fifth year in a row, tuition at the Dartmouth Medical School will increase only 2 percent to $23,260.
Tuition at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering is the same as undergraduate tuition.
Dean of the College Lee Pelton, presented the Dartmouth Experience proposal to the Trustees during their meetings.
"My interest has been to find ways in which students and faculty can interact outside the classroom in places that present a kind of naturalness and ease," Pelton said.
The Board was also presented with the proposal to build a new residence hall, Pelton said. However, the Trustees did not have time to consider it fully and promised to address it at their next meeting.
