During their Winter term meetings over the weekend, the Board of Trustees approved a budget for the 2001-2002 academic year, including a 3.5 percent tuition increase that brings the annual cost for a Dartmouth education to $26,400. Combined tuition, room and board will be $34,458, an increase of 3.8 percent overall.
The Board also endorsed the recommendations from two committees that have been working on a revised hazing policy and a new, universal group adjudication system. Both policies will be finalized over the next couple months and will likely go into effect next fall.
Tuition
The tuition increase next year -- from $25,500 for 2000-2001 -- is in line with the increases from the last two years and is slightly larger than last year's 3.4 percent inflation rate.
Trustee Chairman William King '63 called the increase "slight," and said the Board took a number of issues into consideration when approving the increase which, according to College Treasurer Win Johnson '67, was the one recommended by the finance committee.
"It was the consensus of the board that any increase should be moderate in nature," King said, noting that the fees charged at other Ivy League institutions were considered in the Trustees' decision.
Nationwide, the average annual tuition increase at private universities last year was 5.2 percent, according to a College Board study released last fall. But few Ivy League universities have matched that in recent years.
Princeton tuition will be $26,160 next year, an increase of 2.9 percent, while students at Cornell will pay $25,970 -- a 4.9 percent increase. Many Ivies have not yet announced their budgets for 2001-2002.
"What the tuition increase really is is a reflection of other increases," King said. "The tuition increase is not simply a figure that is drawn out of the air."
He noted in particular the impact of rising faculty salaries, hourly wage costs and administrative compensation packages as well as the maintenance of the College's need-blind admissions as responsible for the increase in the cost of a Dartmouth education.
Tuition for Dartmouth Medical School students will rise 5.1 percent next year to $28,680 while Tuck Business School tuition for 2001-2002 will be $30,250, a 5.3 percent increase.
Thayer Engineering School tuition is the same as that paid by undergraduates and will also rise 3.5 percent to $26,400.
Hazing and Adjudication
New hazing and adjudication policies are products of committee work that has been going on since last spring to fulfill the visions contained in Trustees' Student Life Initiative decision.
Dean of the College James Larimore said the new hazing regulations will likely take effect in the fall and will apply more to psychological hazing and harassment as compared to those currently in effect, which are based largely on the state of New Hampshire statute regarding hazing.
"The policy that has been proposed is one that is much broader in its focus," he said, noting that the new policy will be more like that in effect at most colleges and universities across the country.
The new adjudication system will have oversight in misconduct cases involving all student groups.
"The board last April urged us to move ahead in creating a single system that would be responsible for instances of group or organizational misconduct," Larimore said.
The Board was uncomfortable with varying treatment for violations of organizations belonging to the Coed, Fraternity, Sorority Council -- whose misconduct was formerly handled by the CFS Judicial Committee -- and other campus groups, Larimore said.
"Our decision was that [treatment of misconduct cases] should be equal across the campus and that it should be the same for all organizations," King said.
Larimore and Assistant Dean of the College Dan Nelson will be meeting with both faculty and students in the coming weeks to get input before the new policies are finalized.
Nelson, who chaired the committees on both hazing and adjudication, could not be reached for comment last night.
Other Issues
Among the other issues the addressed over the weekend was the construction of new undergraduate dormitories on Tuck Drive and Maynard Street, also related to the Initiative.
The Board approved moving ahead with work on the Tuck Drive site, for which an architect was recently named, and also continued to planning for the Maynard Street location, King said.
Also discussed was the academic planning report currently being put together by Provost Susan Prager. The Board received an update over the weekend, King said, but expects to take more substantive action at their meeting in April.
