Committee Recommends Fee Hike

Author: Gale Berninghausen


At the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting on Sunday, the Comprehensive Fee Committee issued a preliminary recommendation to set next year's comprehensive fee at approximately $36,000.

Committee members were appointed by SGA President Brian Elworthy '02.5 to formulate a recommendation for next year's comprehensive fee, and to provide a student voice in the College's annual budgeting process.

The committee, headed by SGA Finance Committee Chair Kaia Laursen '02, is comprised of four other students, including Ivan Hernandez '04, Andrew Martel '04, Martin Wesolowski '03 and Christopher White '02.

On Feb. 15 the Comprehensive Fee Committee will meet with the Middlebury College Board of Trustees to present its recommendation of a 5 percent increase in next year's fee. Committee members warned that the Trustees might opt for an even larger tuition hike.

The comprehensive fee for 2001-2002 academic year stands at $34,300 — a 5.4 percent increase over the previous year's fee of $32,765.

Last year the Comprehensive Fee Committee had recommended a 5.5 percent increase, which was $260 more than the figure that the Trustees ultimately accepted.

The committee stressed that their current recommendation for a 5 percent increase in the fee is preliminary and takes into account the many factors that influence the College's income.

In response to questions about why the fee has to increase at all, given Williams College's decision to freeze tuition in recent years, the committee cited several reasons.

The College endowment is worth approximately $700 million, and typically no more than 5 percent of that sum should be used to fund College operations.

However, due to the recession, endowment value declined by $90 million between June 30, 1999 and Sept. 30, 2001.

The comprehensive fee, therefore, must be enlarged to compensate, the committee explained.

In the past, such as ten years ago in 1992, the comprehensive fee rose by 8 percent, but then increases leveled out at about 4 percent annually until 2000.

With the suggested $36,000 comprehensive fee for 2002-2003, $32.6 million — 7.5 percent of the endowment — would be transferred into the operating budget of the College.

The College's annual budget is $125 million. Sixty percent of this is used for the salaries, wages and benefits of faculty and staff and about $44,000 is spent to educate each Middlebury student.

The income generated by the College through the comprehensive fee — approximately $90 million — is supplemented by the endowment revenue and other sources, such as the Snow Bowl and College Bookstore.

In determining the comprehensive fee, institutions of higher education such as Middlebury use the Higher Education Index, which almost always outpaces growth in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the standard measure of inflation.

Last year the Higher Education Index increased by 3.8 percent, while the CPI rose just 2.5 percent.

The recommended 5 percent increase in the comprehensive fee reflects the fact that the College, like other institutions, uses materials of great cost.

Martel remarked that in regard to Middlebury's comprehensive fee "we're in the middle of our peer institutions."

The gift portion of College financial aid packages is also set to increase by $500, reducing the amount of loans students will have to take out.

According to the committee, the 37 percent of the student body that receives financial aid will see no rise in their expected contribution.

"It was quite a difficult year to create a balanced budget because of the economic recession and the College's endowment," Martel commented.

"It was an informative, educational experience [with] student input," he went on to explain.

"I applaud Middlebury for having a committee like this. [Most] schools don't," Laursen concluded by saying.