HANOVER — The Dartmouth College Board of Trustees has approved a 3.9% increase in undergraduate tuition, mandatory fees, room and board for the 2020-21 school year, for a total of $76,480, according to an announcement on the college’s website.
The total operating budget for fiscal year 2021 will be $1.13 billion, with a $48.7 million capital budget for various construction and building renovation projects around campus.
While part of the capital budget will go toward developing “a more detailed plan of how we can adopt non-combustion and low-carbon technology that meet our sustainable energy goals,” Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said, the college has not ruled out a proposed biomass plant meant to heat campus that attracted controversy from alumni environmentalists.
Accompanying the tuition hikes is $120 million budgeted for financial aid, which is a 6% increase from last year and the college’s highest financial aid total ever.
According to the news release, the tuition rates will apply to undergraduates as well as graduate students at the Thayer School of Engineering and the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
The Tuck School of Business will see its tuition rise 3.2% to $77,520 and tuition to pursue a medical degree at the Geisel School of Medicine will rise 3% to $67,532.
Lawrence said the inflation rate from an “Employment Cost Index for Colleges and Universities” was 2.5% and that the Dartmouth increase above that “reflects expenses that grew at a rate greater than the 2.5% rate of inflation.”
In an effort to support a culture of transparency and communication, the board also approved a new gift policy, which defines the principles by which philanthropic gifts will be accepted and requires that all approved gifts be in line with the values of the college.
Dartmouth’s updated policy comes after a recently uncovered controversy at MIT where three vice presidents approved donations by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2013 despite being aware of his status as a convicted sex offender.
Asked if the new policy was related to MIT’s problems, Lawrence said, “While we are mindful of the news, we review gift acceptance policies regularly and we have a longstanding gift acceptance administrative committee. … We review different pieces of the gift policy each year as charged by the audit committee of the board of trustees.”
Rohan Chakravarty can be reached at rchakravarty@ vnews.com.