While the University Board of Trustees approved an increase in undergraduate tuition yesterday, some students will soon be receiving more assistance to help pay for their Penn education.
For the 2005-2006 academic year, tuition, fees and room and board will total $41,766, a 5.4 percent increase from this year.
However, Penn will also increase its financial aid budget by an additional $1.8 million, totalling a $6.8 million increase on the year. This is intended to fund three new initiatives to aid middle- and low-income students.
The initiatives will include allowing outside scholarships to supplement, rather than replace, Penn-funded aid; increasing allowances for incidental expenses for low-income students; and replacing summer savings for low-income students with grant money. Currently, students are expected to save approximately $1,000 of summer income.
These improvements in financial aid will affect approximately 1,250 students effective this September.
Gutmann said that she and Student Financial Aid Director Bill Schilling determined that these steps would be the most effective changes possible.
"We want all of our students to be able to afford to buy a computer, for example, to be able to afford to do volunteer work in the summer rather than to have to get a job," Gutmann said.
"We want to make Penn more affordable. ... It's as simple as that," she added.
Many students on campus are relieved by these improvements, while others remain skeptical of their long-term effects.
College freshman Juliana Calhoun is supportive of the initiative allowing students to receive outside scholarships without a decrease in their Penn aid.
"What's the point of getting an outside scholarship if Penn's going to take it?" Calhoun said.
Similarly, College sophomore Eileen Romero is pleased with the decision to replace the summer income expectation with grant money.
"I'm glad that they've changed that because I know a lot of people who have had a really hard time meeting that expectation," Romero said, "It could be very, very difficult for students to get a job during the summer."
However, Engineering sophomore Matthew Carruth is unsure whether these improve- ments will be equally effective for all students.
"What I've seen is [that] they offer really good financial aid packages to freshmen, and then once you're here they continually slash it," Carruth said. "So maybe this will turn it around."
Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli said that the University will not make improvements to financial aid unless they are intended to be permanent.
"We cannot do something for just one year and then go back and change it," Carnaroli said.
Gutmann said that these three improvements are just the first few steps in her work toward improving undergraduate financial aid.
"There will undoubtedly be other initiatives along the way that we haven't thought of yet. This is not a world that remains still," Gutmann said, noting that over the next five to seven years, there will be efforts toward lessening the loan burden on students.
