U. tuition hike lowest in Ivy League

and Ryan Papir In presentations to University Council and two Board of Trustees' committees last week, Acting Budget Director Ben Hoyle detailed the University's proposed 1995-96 budget. He cited the University's 5.5 percent increase in tuition and fees -- lower than hikes proposed at Dartmouth College, the University of Rochester and Yale, Princeton and Brown universities -- as a focal point of the package. For 1994-95, the University's average tuition, mandatory fees and room and board total $25,822 -- making the University fourth most expensive among Ivy League schools. The University's tuition and mandatory fees, taken alone, were the cheapest in the Ivy League at an average of $18,856. The University's 5.7 percent increase in tuition and mandatory fees for 1994-95 was on par with increases across Ivy League, which saw an average tuition and fee hike of 5.8 percent. Hoyle also said the University would like to get the rate of growth in unrestricted funds in line with increases in tuition and fees, and wants more of the funding for financial aid to come from the University's endowment. "The faster the unrestricted fund grows, the less the University has to invest in other services," Hoyle said. Approximately $43 million of the total financial aid grant of $47.1 million comes from unrestricted funds, the main source of which is tuition. Allocations for the Penn Grant program, which is primarily funded by unrestricted monies, will increase by 6.3 percent. This is down from a growth rate of 17 percent in the last fiscal year and 10 percent for this fiscal year. This money is given primarily in the form of direct grants from the University to financially needy students, Hoyle said. The majority of financial aid comes from Penn Grant funds, he said. Hoyle also said that University-wide revenues are expected to rise by 4.7 percent for fiscal 1996, despite the fact that the incoming Class of 1999 will have 50 fewer students than the current freshman class. The reduction in class size has been mandated by the Trustees due to concern over the University's student to faculty ratio, which is higher than those at peer institutions, Provost Stanley Chodorow told University Council. Hoyle presented projections discussing an anticipated increase in compensation of 5.2 percent University-wide, with benefits rising by 6.0 percent and non-academic salaries up 3.2 percent. Average academic salaries will jump an 7.3 percent over the next year as a result of a 3.5 percent increase in raises for existing faculty positions and a $1.8 million appropriation for new appointments. These figures do not demonstrate the effects of process reengineering that will occur throughout the University during the implementation of the Coopers & Lybrand administrative restructuring report, Hoyle said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.