The Dartmouth community may be facing higher property insurance premiums due to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Property and casualty insurance firms are expected to bear the majority of the cost for settling claims that have arisen from the tragedies at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The cost of these claims could reach $30 to $60 million, according to Smartmoney.com, and this has insurance companies reeling.
In order to recover, the companies have jacked up the price of premiums, and Dartmouth, like other policy-holders, can expect to pay more.
"A trend toward higher prices for property insurance had been going forward prior to Sept. 11," Director of Risk Management Marcia Colligan said. "This trend has now been exacerbated."
The cost of insuring the College's property, Colligan said, is directly linked to the international insurance markets, and now, as after any major disaster, insurance prices can be expected to see significant increases.
"Whenever there has to be a large payout, such as after a hurricane, there will be an increase in insurance costs," Colligan said.
Luckily, property insurance is a very small portion of the College's overall budget, and any increases in this area are not likely to cause a problem, according to Director of Budgeting and Financial Planning Bonnie Norton. In fact, she stated that as of yet, there haven't been any significant budget increases in the area of insurance.
The rise in property insurance costs also afflicts Greek houses, however. Insurance premiums are a much larger percentage of the budget for CFS organizations, and the increase is likely to impact them more heavily.
According to Alpha Chi Alpha treasurer Ed Freidheim, there has been approximately a 33 percent increase in insurance costs, and this has made a significant difference in financial planning for the year.
"We are limited in the amount of social events we can have, in what the house can afford to do," Freidheim said.
Additionally, any increase in insurance costs is not likely to reverse itself in the immediate future.
"Pricing on insurance is historically cyclical," Colligan said. "We are in an upward cycle that has now been exaggerated, and will continue to increase."
