Trustees raise student fees by 3.9 percent

The University Board of Trustees approved a 3.9 percent increase in undergraduate fees and a $1.2 billion budget for 2008-09, the University announced on Jan. 26.

Student fees will total $45,695 next year, up from the $43,980 total for the 2007-08 school year.

The distribution of the new fees is $34,290 for tuition and $11,405 for room and board.

University Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said in a statement that the increase was “likely to be less than or equal to the average rate of increase in the incomes of tuition-paying families at Princeton.” He said this conclusion was based on analysis of national labor market projections.
Though the University made headlines last year for raising room and board while keeping tuition costs steady, the announced $1,715 increase for next year includes slight raises in room and board as well as tuition.

The fee increase of 3.9 percent is the smallest for the University since the 2001-02 academic year.

Last year fees were increased by $1,780, or 4.2 percent.

Last month, Yale announced that it will peg its tuition and room and board fees to the expected consumer price index. This 2.2 percent increase is lower than the 5 percent increases of the past several years.

“While the University’s exceptional financial aid program is the most important vehicle for ensuring that a Princeton education is affordable to all the University’s students, we also recognize that the cost of a Princeton education puts substantial burdens on families that do not qualify for aid, especially those only slightly above the aid threshold,” Eisgruber said.

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At their meeting, the trustees also approved a $1.2 billion operating budget for 2008-09, which includes an additional $5.6 million for undergraduate financial aid. This is almost a 7 percent increase over last year’s financial aid budget and is intended to balance out the hike in expenses.

Several new budget outlays apply to undergraduates, including funding for club and intramural sports as well as improvements to laundry facilities. The budget also includes increased staff for OIT, an increase in the graduate student stipend, and a fund for humanities and social science research support.

“I’m thrilled and continue to be impressed by the board’s responsiveness to USG input and the overall needs of students,” 2007 USG president Rob Biederman ’08 said.

The USG asked for an additional $68,000 to be spent on undergraduate laundry facilities this fall. Biederman also made increased funding for club sports one of his campaign pledges in the fall of 2006.

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“These changes will be extremely beneficial and are the direct result of student suggestions,” he added.

Annual Giving and other donations, as well as endowment growth, make the increased spending possible. The endowment reached $15.8 billion at the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, with returns of 24.7 percent.