Tuition will increase by 6.3 percent in 2006 and 6 percent in 2007, and housing costs will rise 5 percent and 5.5 percent in budgets approved by AU's Board of Trustees Friday, according to Provost Neil Kerwin and Don Myers, vice president of finance.
The increase results from rising energy and health care costs, as well as projects that Kerwin and Myers say will add more value to the university, such as the Katzen Arts Center, intramural fields and a new student health center in McCabe Hall.
"What the students really need to focus on is the added value these increases bring to their experience," Kerwin said. "The value of the degrees that students leave with are stronger."
Financial aid is indexed so that it will increase at least as much as tuition, he said, accounting for 19 percent of University expenses both years.
Financial aid is one of the points Student Confederation president Polson Kanneth stressed in budget discussions, which also included representatives from the Graduate Leadership Council and Washington College of Law's Student Bar Association.
"The University is on the rise, I think everyone can see that," Kanneth said. "The next step is to make sure we're not leaving anyone behind."
The largest expenses are personnel costs, which make up 46 percent of the budget in 2006 and 45 percent in 2007.
These costs cover the hiring of more full-time faculty consistent with part of President Benjamin Ladner's 15-Point Plan, designed in 2001 to improve AU in the long run, Kerwin said.
AU hired 17 full-time faculty and the number of adjunct faculty decreased, while the quality of adjunct faculty increased in the last two years, Kerwin said. AU must pay these faculty members more to keep them at AU.
"We see that student satisfaction with teaching has increased in the last two years," he said.
The budget funds a 3.75 percent performance-based salary increase for faculty and establishes new Presidential Fellowships to encourage faculty research.
When asked how Kerwin and Myers justify Ladner's salary, the second-highest of D.C. university presidents, to students, Kerwin said, "We don't. ... It's based on the Board of Trustees' assessment of his performance."
Kerwin said AU has experienced a "very steady improvement" since Ladner became president in 1994.
"You'd expect his salary to reflect that," he said.
Ladner's total compensation from 2002-2003, including his salary and benefits, was $614,360.
Kerwin and Myers are the highest compensated provost and vice president of finance in D.C. at $367,163, and $365,687, respectively.
Tuition and fees will account for 81 percent of revenue both years. Freshman and transfer enrollments are budgeted at 1,325 and 375 respectively, a 3 to 4 percent increase from the past two-year budget cycle, according to Kerwin.
Ladner's 15-Point Plan dictates a steady decrease in enrollment to make AU more selective, but Kerwin said applications are so competitive that AU can accept more students while still improving student quality.
"I think academic quality is driving this [increase in applications]," Kerwin said. Students are attracted to AU's location in D.C. and how it "brings the city to campus."
Another factor that might draw applicants is AU's jump in rankings, from No. 99 to 86 in in U.S. News and World Report's 2004 annual ranking of top schools.
Though rankings help, AU doesn't make decisions with them in mind because ranking is "a byproduct of what we're really interested in," which is the student experience, Kerwin said.
The student technology fee will rise from $55 to $95 per semester for full-time students and from $20 to $30 for part-time students, the first increase in four years. The fee will pay for a number of enhancements including improved security, Web management and membership in Internet2 network technology.
AU will not receive any of the $50 fee students might pay for Ruckus, the legal music and movie downloading program introduced for free this semester.
Ruckus could prevent AU from incurring "very large" fines if its students illegally download copyrighted files and AU takes no action against the students, Myers said.
Last November, the Recording Industry Association of America requested the names of three AU students who were illegally downloading files from the Internet.
AU will cut local and long-distance service from dorm phone lines next fall, a move that will prevent AU from spending $1 to 1.2 million in initial capital, as well as operational costs between $85,000 to $125,000 per year, The Eagle reported.
This savings doesn't factor into the 2006 and 2007 budgets and isn't something that could be directly passed on to students, Myers said. The $1-1.2 million is what AU saves by not having to replace the aging phone system in the future.
Myers and Kerwin said AU is sensitive to students' concerns about rising costs.
"The increases we're talking about here are not insignificant but they're certainly not out of line" with other universities in the same market, Kerwin said. "We will continue to be competitive in terms of cost."
AU's tuition increased 5.9 percent from 2004 to 2005 while Georgetown University's increased 6.9 percent and George Washington University's increased 15.9 percent, according to the report Ladner submitted to the Board of Trustees.
Administrators have held town hall meetings on formulating the budget and invited student leaders to the Board of Trustees' budget discussions, Myers said. AU sought to "let anyone who wanted to participate in the process to do so," he said.
Myers and Kerwin said they appreciated input from student leaders.
"The board heard very eloquent statements from students at this meeting [of the board of trustees on Friday]," Kerwin said, noting students also attended a meeting of the board's Finance and Investment Committee Thursday.
Kanneth said the administration has done a good job opening the process to students.
"I think we made it transparent, and that's the number one priority," he said. "You've got to know where the money's going"
