Photo by: Andrew Fielding
The university plans to add more than $8 million to student financial aid at the undergraduate and graduate levels, said the provost following an announcement that DU will increase the cost of attendance 3.68 percent for the 2011-2012 academic year.
“Some [students] will see their cost of attendance rise with the tuition, fee and room and board increases by the full amount,” said Gregg Kvistad, university provost, in an e-mail to the Clarion. “The majority of DU students, however, will see their expenses rise less than the dollar amount of the tuition rate increase.”
Tuition alone has increased $1,332, from $35,604 this academic year to $36,936 for 2011-2012.
“It depends on the particular student and his or her financial aid package,” said Kvistad. “But, yes, one of the most important goals of the university is to offset as much of the tuition increase for needy students as possible.”
According to Kvistad, these increases were recommended by the university’s central administration. The increase in tuition and overall cost of attendance were approved by the Board of Trustees in February. The mandatory student fee will remain $321, as will the student health fee of $432 and the technology fee of $144. Room and board fees for the standard double room and meal plan will increase $216, from $10,224 to $10,440, for the standard double-occupancy rooms and premium meal plan.
DU remains heavily dependent on tuition to cover its expenses; 69 percent of DU’s revenue is provided by tuition, he said.
When students apply for admittance to DU, they often also apply to any number of other private universities against which DU measures its tuition and cost of attendance, Kvistad said. These universities include University of Puget Sound, University of San Diego and Santa Clara University. The cost of attendance at these universities is $48,905, $25,167 and $51,045, respectively.
Kvistad also said that the administration is proposing investments for next year that will significantly improve DU and the student experience.
The administration is proposing to add 23 new appointed faculty positions to the university, said Kvistad. In the fall of 2010, there were 640 full-time appointed faculty members. The administration is also intending to reorganize DU Career Services and add staff, “all directed toward making job finding and placement much better for DU students,” Kvistad said.
In the proposed budget for 2011-2012, there is also a small increase in the merit salary pool for University employees – meaning more money to fund salary raises. Last year, fiscal year 2010, there were no salary increases for DU employees, faculty and staff, and it ended with 122 staff positions – not faculty – eliminated.
DU also will look to make annual investments into its infrastructure reserve, allowing for the necessary maintenance and updates to buildings on campus.
“Many of the items listed above that we’re proposing for fiscal year 2012 are expense increases that simply are not covered – and cannot reasonably be expected to be covered – by philanthropy,” said Kvistad. “One of the most successful initiatives that we have launched in the campaign is a matching program for donors to increase need-based financial aid and thereby begin to close the ‘need gap’ for many of our students.”
He predicts that DU will be forced to increase tuition again for the 2012-2013 academic year.
“The University’s tuition dependence is a fact of our current financial existence. We are in the process of mitigating that dependence by creating other revenue streams,” Kvistad said. “The ASCEND comprehensive fundraising campaign is an effort to do precisely that. The more resources that are available to us from generous donors, the less the University will need to depend on tuition for future investments to keep the DU experience first-rate.”
