Marking the largest increase in four years, Dartmouth's Board of Trustees approved raising undergraduate tuition by 4.5 percent to $27,600 at their winter meeting this past weekend. Overall charges for the 2002-03 academic year will rise 4.4 percent to $35,988.
During their Winter term meetings, the Trustees also examined a statement by Dartmouth President James Wright about the college's strategic planning process, approved the College's 2002 affirmative action plan and met with the undergraduate and graduate students who comprise Student Affairs Group to discuss gender and inter-group relations.
The Board also discussed means of amending the College's mission statements and plans to expand the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
The relatively large increase this year is the result of the current economic downturn, according to College officers.
Since Dartmouth's two main sources of revenue are tuition and endowment returns, Dartmouth must raise tuition in order to compensate for low rates of return on the endowment, Wright said.
"The Board has had a policy of keeping tuition increases at 3.5 percent," Trustee Chair Susan Dentzer '77 said. "The problem is that that policy was adopted under more favorable economic conditions."
Dentzer also pointed out that many of Dartmouth's peer institutions have raised tuition by similar or even higher rates.
"We don't follow each other," she said. "It's just that they're facing the same set of issues that we are."
Princeton has raised tuition by 3.9 percent to $27,230 and Cornell and Stanford both raised tuition by five percent, to $27,270 and respectively $27,204. Total costs at the three schools respectively will be $35,072, $36,322 and $35,884.
Most Ivies have not yet announced their budgets for the 2002-2003 academic year.
Wright stressed that the Office of Financial Aid would do everything possible to strengthen students' financial aid packages to compensate for the rise in tuition, adding that Dartmouth remains firmly committed to need-blind admissions.
The Trustees also discussed plans for the northward expansion of campus, Wright said.
He said that Dartmouth will likely break ground on the new Maynard Street dormitory in September 2003.
The Trustees viewed designs for Kemeny Hall, the new mathematics building, which will be built at approximately the same time as the new residence halls on the north end of campus.
Wright added that in order to proceed with the construction of these new facilities, Dartmouth will remove Bradley and Gerry Halls and will have to move the Phi Tau fraternity house forward on its lot.
The Board also approved the construction of a new parking garage near Cummings Hall at the Thayer School of Engineering, Wright said.
In other business, the Board approved the College's 2002 affirmative action plan. Both Dentzer and Wright said that the plan differed little from plans approved in previous years.
Dentzer also pointed out that what the College can and cannot say in affirmative action plans is dictated by law.
"The numbers change from year to year," she said, "but the overall goal of keeping diversity, of recognizing legal goals and institutional aspirations, is the same as always."
Dentzer said that the College has begun examining ways to improve its mission statement in accordance with recommendations made by the Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity.
She said that drafts of the new mission statement will soon be posted on Dartmouth's Web site so that people can comment on the proposed changes.
Both Dentzer and Wright said that they enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the Student Affairs Group.
Dentzer noted that the new format, which allowed more direct interaction between students and Trustees, was more conducive to discussion.
Neither Wright nor Dentzer expected the Board to prepare any specific new policies in response to what was said during student discussions.
The Trustees also listened to lengthy presentations regarding the interaction between DHMC and Dartmouth.
"We didn't really discuss hospital expansion per se," Dentzer said, "but we did learn quite a bit about the exciting synergies between the College and DHMC."
