Princeton sets lowest tuition raise in decades

As the season of tuition price-setting begins, Princeton University yesterday set the tone: It announced its lowest tuition and fees percentage increase since 1966.

The cost of undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board for 2009-10 will rise 2.9 percent at the Ivy League institution, to $47,020 - up $1,325 from the current year.

National and state education experts yesterday said that they expected to see lower than normal tuition increases at other private universities across the nation, as they try to help families floundering in a difficult economy.

State universities are expected to hike tuition to make up for cuts from state governments.

While increases have averaged 5 or 6 percent a year at private universities for the last decade, they're likely to fall in the 3 to 4 percent range this year, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education.

"You're going to see a lot more Princetons," agreed Don Francis, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania. "You're going to see a number of schools doing everything they can to help families right now, knowing that times are tough."

Public schools, officials said, will have a harder time because their states also likely will be cutting funding, and they will need tuition to make up the difference.

Pennsylvania State University already announced a 5.87 percent hike in its room-and-board fees and is anticipating hiking tuition between 5 and 5.5 percent.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which includes West Chester and Cheyney Universities, anticipated needing a 4 percent tuition hike next year when it submitted its budget request to the governor in October.

But both institutions say that their projections are only estimates and that they are waiting to see Gov. Rendell's funding proposals for higher education, expected to be released next week as part of his budget address.

Most area universities contacted yesterday said they had not yet set fees for next year.

Private schools expect to make those decisions in the next couple months, while public schools will wait until late spring or summer, after state budgets are finalized.

"Our proposal attempts to slow the increase in costs from previous years, and seeks to ensure our financial aid budget is rising faster than our costs," said Rick DiFeliciantonio, vice president for enrollment at Ursinus College in Collegeville, where the trustees board plans to take action at a Feb. 12 meeting.

Two area schools said they have set fees: Chestnut Hill College's tuition will rise 3.87 percent to $27,000; it went up 4.4 percent last year. Its room and board will go up 2.9 percent to $8,550.

Gwynedd-Mercy College raised tuition 6 percent, 3 percentage points less than last year. Tuition, fees and room and board will cost $33,510 next year in most programs.

Princeton also will increase its financial-aid budget by 13 percent or about $12 million, to $104 million, to help students cover the additional costs, officials announced.

The decision came at a weekend meeting of the board of trustees, where they also adopted a $1.3 billion budget for next year.

And it follows mid-year requests from students for more financial aid because of job loss or reductions in family income, officials said. Princeton increased its financial-aid budget mid-year by $5 million, up to $92 million, to meet those additional requests.

Princeton, which plans to cut non-personnel budget expenses by 5 percent and exercise other belt-tightening to achieve the lower increase, said its decision was driven by an economy that continues to sputter.

"Princeton needs to take extraordinary measures in light of the hardships being faced by many tuition-paying families," Princeton Provost Christopher Eisgruber said in a prepared statement.

But some officials say that's really not enough.

"While it is a low increase for Princeton, it really is going in the wrong direction, given the state of the economy. Right now, [colleges and universities] really need to hold the line on tuition and mandatory fees generally," said Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education who teaches in the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania.

That would be impossible for many private colleges and universities, countered Hartle, of the American Council.

"They might be able to have zero increases if they laid off two dozen faculty members. That's the sort of trade-off that most colleges and universities face," he said.

It is easier for a school such as Princeton to keep increases lower because of its large endowment, which was at $16.3 billion at the end of 2007-08. Princeton's endowment, as that of other colleges, has taken a hit in recent months, but the school declined to provide more current figures.