The College's Board of Trustees approved a 4.8 percent increase in tuition and a 13 percent increase in financial aid for the 2009-2010 academic year during its meeting in New York City this weekend.
The Board has not yet made public the specifics of its plan to respond to the economic crisis and address Dartmouth's $40 million shortfall. The Board was to have decided on its response this weekend, executive vice president of finance and administration Adam Keller said in a previous interview.
Financial aid spending will increase from $63.5 million to $72 million, according to a College press release, and tuition will rise to $38,445 from $36,915.
For the 2008-2009 academic year, tuition had increased by 4.9 percent.
"We did not try to balance the budget based on charging more tuition," College President James Wright said. "We recognize the burden that it places on people, and we are not in a position to try to minimize what we charge, so this struck us as a figure that would perhaps be the best one to use."
Wright stressed the importance of maintaining the financial aid enhancements implemented in September, which include free tuition for students whose families have annual incomes below $75,000 and need-blind admissions for international students.
The Board hopes that the increase in funds allocated to financial aid will be sufficient to address the anticipated increase in need due to the economic recession and tuition increases, Wright said.
"There will be another class that will be eligible for greater financial aid next year, so that will increase [the financial aid expenses], and clearly in this economy we have to anticipate that there will be perhaps some growth in the number of students on financial aid or the level of their needs," Wright said.
The Board also increased tuition for some of Dartmouth's graduate schools.
Dartmouth Medical School and the Tuck School of Business will see a 6-percent and a 4.9-percent increase, respectively, while students at the Thayer School of Engineering will see a 4.8-percent increase.
Wright said that the graduate schools often have different increases in tuition because those schools are more dependent on tuition for their overall revenue.
"The medical school is obviously dealing with a whole range of complicated financial issues," Wright said in the interview. "Their endowment revenue has gone down at the same time that federal support for research and teaching programs is declining. Obviously, it's a tougher environment in terms of clinical money due to what's happening in Medicare and insurance companies. They're getting it from every direction."
The Board had to consider how the tuitions of the different graduate schools compared to other schools with similar academic reputations, Wright said.
DMS is "well-positioned relative to other medical schools in terms of the tuition they charge," Wright said.
The entire Board also met to discuss the ongoing search for the College's next president.
The Board is expected to announce Wright's successor this spring.
The search is currently on schedule, Board Chairman Ed Haldeman '70 said.
Budget issues do not seem to be a significant factor for the candidates, Haldeman said, because they are all "close to, involved in or connected to higher education" and understand that most colleges and universities currently have budget concerns.
