The College

FACED with continuing rising costs, the Board of Trustees has approved increases in the College's comprehensive tuition charge and in room and board rates, effective next September. For the 1970-71 academic year, tuition at Dartmouth will be increased by $200, the board rate by $100, and the average room rate by $25. The new tuition fee of $2,550 covers health service charges and other fees often billed separately at other colleges. These increases are also applicable to students in the three graduate professional schools and to those in the graduate programs in the Arts and Sciences. Summer-term fees will be increased from $180 to $200 per course for tuition and from $315 to $38O for room and board.

The increases were instituted to meet what the Trustees characterized as "continued and sharply rising costs common to all educational enterprises." At the same time, in line with the College's established policy of keeping its opportunities open to promising young men unable to finance their college educations without assistance, the Board authorized commensurate increases in scholarships, loans, and employment.

The total of the three basic costs of tuition, room, and board at Dartmouth, which will average $3,800 for the 1970-71 academic year, will remain within the lower range of charges at those private colleges with which Dartmouth is traditionally associated, most of which also have announced or are expected to announce increases in rates. Even under the new rate scale, tuition will continue to cover less than half the cost to the College of each individual student's education.

Among factors leading to the increase in charges for 1970-71 are the steady increase in the cost of living, which is reflected in the prices of the goods and services Dartmouth purchases; the need for competitive compensation for faculty and staff; and sharply increased taxation on the dining halls and dormitories, which are subject to local real estate taxes under New Hampshire law.

Tuition and other basic fees were raised, it was explained, only when it became clear to the Trustees that Dartmouth faces in the current fiscal year an operating deficit approaching $500,000, on top of last year's $600,000 deficit, and that the prospect is for a continuing deficit of at least that magnitude in 1970-71. These deficits will arise even after projected economies throughout the institution and added revenue from the increased charges, the scheduled use of the expendable component of the Third Century Fund, and the adoption of the "total return" concept of investment revenue that takes into account investment appreciation as well as endowment income.