Students get more than their money's worth

Although a Tufts education is among the most expensive in the nation, it would be even higher if the University relied solely on student tuition and fees to balance its budget. In round numbers, the annual budget for Arts and Sciences is $230 million. Tuition and fees make up $190 million of that, leaving $40 million dollars to be made through other means.

The additional income comes from a variety of sources. Tufts' endowment contributes $6.5 million annually and the fundraising organization Tufts Fund adds a little under $4.5 million. The federal and state governments give $25 million in restrictive income, and the rest of the money needed to break even comes from a variety of other sources, according to Executive Administrative Dean of Finance Wayne Bouchard.

"The school's budget is break even," Bouchard said. "If we didn't have other sources of income, tuition would have to be higher."

Tuition would have to be quite a bit higher, in fact. If tuition and fees were the only source of funds for the University, the 5,000 students of Tufts would be paying an additional $10,000 each year.

The University has made an effort to keep student fees as low as possible. "Rather than say 'let's increase tuition and see how we can spend it,' we try to keep the price down," Bouchard said.

Financial aid plays into a large part of the budget. Roughly $27 million is taken from tuition revenues and redirected to students who need aid. If this were divided evenly among the student body, students would be paying approximately $5,500 more.

"Obviously numbers like that have significant impact on the Arts and Sciences budget," Bouchard said. "Wealthier institutions have the ability to use external sources to pay more costs. We have to cover financial aid from revenue sources."

The downturn in the economy _ while not directly impacting the amount the University charges _ is still recognizable. There is pressure to keep costs down so that more students don't need financial aid.

"If the economic indicators say the parents of our students are getting smaller salary increases, then we have to work harder for families to attend Tufts," Bouchard said.

It has often been a complaint of both students and parents that the average college tuition is growing faster than inflation. At least at Tufts, the explanation is the increase in cost of facilities. These numbers have been growing more than twice as fast as the Tufts tuition increase of four and a half percent annually. These costs are mainly new construction, such as Dowling Hall and the planned new music department building and new dorm, according to Bouchard.

Buildings such as Dowling have in fact helped reduce Tufts' costs. "Before Dowling, we had individual services doing their jobs, but they weren't efficient in terms of combining parts," Bouchard said.

While Tufts' $36,465 per year price is expensive, it is comparable to other universities. In fact, it can even be considered a deal when Harvard, a university with 27 times the endowment of Tufts' $677 million at $18.3 billion, charges essentially the same amount for tuition and fees at just under $36,000.

Students agree that tuition, while expensive, is reasonable. "Yes, tuition does keep going up, but so does every other university's tuition," sophomore Stuart Mueller said. "The only thing is that the University doesn't outline where the money goes to."

The money is used in everything from professor salaries to purchasing new computers and building new dorms. The process of deciding the budget for the coming year is already in motion. All the different schools at Tufts, including Arts and Sciences, are now looking at what they face next year in terms of financial aid, professor salaries and even the cost of electricity.

This preliminary budget is sent to the Budget and Priorities Committee. Between November and December central administration works to put together the final package and it is sent to the trustees in January. The final budget is decided when the trustees get together and vote in February.

In recent months, both students and administrators have raised the issue of whether Tufts can move to need-blind admissions. Bouchard says he is hopeful for the day when this can happen but estimates that an additional $100 to $150 million in endowment is necessary to accomplish this.

An increase in money raised by the Tufts Fund will also help. The $4.5 million Tufts Fund contributes is essential to the budget, but only 29 percent of alumni contribute each year. With the expansion of Tufts Fund and the endowment, under-funded programs can be compensated.

The consensus seems to be that Tufts is doing what it can to keep tuition as low as possible. "We haven't loaded up tuition," Bouchard said. "We have tried to be creative and efficient. Our highest priority is 'Don't increase tuition more than you absolutely have to.'