U. will increase tuition 5 percent

The University Board of Trustees approved a 4.9 percent hike in total student charges for the 2001-2002 academic year at the March executive committee meeting yesterday. This change raises the cost of a Penn education from $32,996 to $34,614. The rate increase is slightly more than the one approved by the Trustees last year, which raised tuition 3.4 percent from $31,902. Over the past five years, Penn's average annual increase was about 3.9 percent per year. And Vice President for Budget and Management Analysis Mike Masch said that the new hike will remain about on par with Penn's peer group. "That will place us very much in the middle of the pack," Masch said. Masch promised that financial aid would be adjusted accordingly, as occurs with every tuition raise. "We want to note that we will, as we do every year, increase the size of the undergraduate financial aid budget," Masch said. Currently, the University's total operating budget sits at $1.4 billion, with $844 million not earmarked for certain projects and programs. The majority of this unrestricted money goes towards students fees. According to Masch, the ever-increasing cost of tuition is not a deterrent to prospective students, who choose Penn for the quality of its faculty and facilities. "It's not because we're the cheapest" that students come to Penn, Masch said. Prospective students are "looking for the best faculty, the best facilities." Also at yesterday's Trustees meeting, officials announced that Penn's endowment continued to significantly outperform benchmark. Penn's endowment was up 5 percent for the month of February, while the benchmark decreased 7 percent in the same month. In Fiscal Year 2000, Penn's endowment decreased 1.8 percent, while several of its peer institutions saw their endowments skyrocket due to heavy investments in the technology sector and venture capital. Penn has traditionally maintained a value bias in its investments, and the University's value bias is now shielding it from the heavy losses that are being seen on Wall Street. However, administrators say that March figures are not promising, with a bear market now almost certain. "March has been a difficult month," said Craig Carnaroli, vice president for investments. However, Executive Vice President John Fry did report that the University's total net assets have risen to over $4.6 billion dollars. Interim Health System Chief Executive Officer Robert Martin announced that the National Institutes of Health gave Penn's Health System a second place national ranking for the second consecutive year.