From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, February 2, 1998
AG helps achieve priorities
Student fees for 1998-99 show lowest percentage increase in more than 30 years
Next year's $572 million budget is projected to be in balance, despite the lowest percentage tuition increase in three decades and an expensive new financial aid initiative, thanks in large measure to the success of annual fundraising associated with the ongoing 250th Anniversary Campaign. Annual Giving has set new records in each of the past two years and last year substantially exceeded its goal in raising an all-time high of $29.6 million.
The operating budget adopted by the trustees on January 24 increases student fees for the 1998-99 academic year by 3.7 percent, the lowest percentage increase in over 30 years. It substantially improves the financial aid program offered to undergraduates, by eliminating the loan expectation on families with incomes below the national median and by reducing the effect of home equity on calculations of families' ability to pay.
The trustees also approved a set of initiatives intended to reduce the average size of language classes, to provide additional academic advising for undergraduates, to offer additional computing support for students in the residential colleges, to augment support for graduate students, and to expand the program of training in English as a second language for international graduate students who will teach. Together, these initiatives will add $363,000 to the operating budget.
Aggressive response to need
In formulating their recommendations to the president and the trustees, the Priorities Committee began with a projected $1.7 million surplus for fiscal year 1999, largely attributable to the success of Princeton's Annual Giving effort, budget cutbacks over the past two years and sponsored research budgets that proved healthier than anticipated. Despite the fact that the longer-term budget forecast is less optimistic (deficits are projected for the three years following 1998-99), the Priorities Committee concluded that the University's overall financial situation is strong enough to enable an aggressive response to the perceived need for an improved financial aid program.
The extraordinary generosity of alumni in the past few years has provided pivotal resources for achieving a number of important priorities, including innovations in support of teaching and research, according to Provost Jeremiah Ostriker.
"More than any other single element, the success of Annual Giving during this campaign has enabled us to undertake new initiatives, from desktop computers for faculty and staff to the new financial aid plan," he said. "Annual Giving has provided us with the financial margin to do new things, while also allowing us to limit our increase in student fees to the lowest percentage since the 1960s."
As examples, Ostriker cited the effort to provide a high standard of desktop computing capacity for all faculty and for those staff requiring access to central administrative systems, as well as a new project to create a single database of all library holdings, which will replace the current mix of card catalogs and various online resources. In both instances, Annual Giving proceeds have paid the initial startup costs, which were higher than could be absorbed by existing administrative budgets; monies within those existing budgets have been allocated toward maintenance of the new systems.
Charges increase to $30,531
The trustees act on budget recommendations prepared by the Priorities Committee and approved by President Shapiro. In this year's report, the committee emphasized the importance of maintaining and improving access to a Princeton education for students from lower and middle income back-grounds. Through the decade of the 1990s, this commitment has led Princeton to reduce the rate of increase of tuition and fees, in an effort to align increases in the cost of its education with the growth in family income.
Undergraduate charges will increase to $30,531 next year. Tuition will be $23,820, an increase of 3.9 percent; the room charge will be $3,077, and the board rate will be $3,634, both up 3.0 percent. Graduate tuition will also be $23,820; room and board charges will vary according to students' residential and dining plans but will increase 3.0 percent.
The financial aid initiative will be phased in over four years and is expected to cost approximately $6 million per year by the time it reaches a steady state in fiscal year 2002. This figure equates to an increase in scholarship expenditures of roughly 20 percent.