Brown Corporation approves 3.6 percent increase in total charges

The Corporation of Brown University has approved an overall increase in undergraduate charges of 3.6 percent for the 2001-02 academic year, bringing the cost of a year at Brown to $34,750. That figure includes a 3.8-percent increase in tuition, to $26,568.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Corporation of Brown University today (Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001) approved a 3.6-percent increase in total undergraduate charges for the 2001-02 academic year, bringing the cost of a year at Brown to $34,750. That figure, which includes a 3.8-percent increase in tuition (to $26,568), is the lowest percentage increase since 1967, when Brown began annual tuition adjustments.

In recommending the 3.6-percent figure to the Corporation, Interim President Sheila E. Blumstein adopted a slightly lower figure than she received from the Advisory Committee on University Planning (ACUP). ACUP, a committee of faculty, students and administrators which prepares budget recommendations for the president, had recommended a 3.7-percent increase.

The Corporation continued its support of Brown’s five-year, $5-million effort to increase the proportion of grants to loans in undergraduate scholarship packages and to make other financial aid improvements. Roughly half of undergraduates now at Brown were admitted under that new policy, which is entering its third year. Support for scholarships and financial aid continues to be the most rapidly rising item in the University’s budget – up 7.3 percent to $46.3 million next year.

“Brown is moving forward on several large initiatives, from a new Life Sciences Building to a project that will ensure the competitiveness of faculty salaries,” said Laura Freid, executive vice president for public affairs and University relations. “Funding those initiatives while sustaining our commitment to financial aid improvements and other priorities posed a significant challenge. To accomplish that while also reducing the rate of increase in tuition and fees was a remarkable achievement by the Corporation.”

Although the University has steadily reduced its endowment draw in recent years, revenue available from the endowment has actually increased, reflecting new gifts and a strong market. Next year, the endowment will supply an additional $5.6 million, for a total endowment utilization of $45.3 million.

President Blumstein also raised the budget target for the Brown Annual Fund by 8 percent, rather than by 7 percent as ACUP had suggested. “The University has worked very hard for the last several years to increase annual giving,” Blumstein told the Corporation. “Brown is now in a position to sustain giving to the annual fund at higher levels.”

The Corporation will consider the University’s full budget at its final meeting of the academic year during Commencement Weekend this May.

A 10-Year history of undergraduate tuition and fees