W&M Board OK's Tuition Hike to 'Maintain Quality'

By Sam Sutton, of the W&M Flat Hat Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary approved substantial undergraduate tuition increases for the 2010-2011 academic year at a special session Saturday.

The increases, which would take effect in the fall, would raise tuition and fees for in-state students by 9.8 percent and by out-of-state students by 8.0 percent. Increases in room rates were also approved, raising total costs for in-state students who live on-campus by 6.5 percent and 6.7 percent for those out-of-state.

Board rates will remain constant through next year.

“If we’re going to maintain the quality of of William and Mary, then this is where we’re gonna have to go,” Rector Henry Wolf ’64 J.D. ’66 said.

According to the budget adopted by the BOV, in-state yearly undergraduate tuition and fees will increase by $1,088. Out-of-state students will see an increase of $2,500.

The total cost for in-state undergraduates – including tuition, fees, room and board - will increase next year by to a total of $20,872. For out-of-state undergraduates, that figure will rise to $42,448.

“The challenge before us is how to sustain this exceptional educational opportunity – and how to enable the university to remain a leader among liberal arts universities – even as taxpayer support for higher education declines,” President Taylor Reveley said in a press release.

The increases were approved after three years of reductions in funding from Virginia, and a slight bump in tuition that was approved at the BOV’s November meeting. Currently, state funding accounts for less than 14 percent of the College’s annual operating budget.

That number is expected to decline even further in the 2012 fiscal year, when one-time federal stimulus funds will no longer be available.

Other Virginia universities have also seen tuition hikes over the past year. In April, James Madison University approved total cost increases of 3.3 percent for in-state students and 5.7 percent for out-of-state students. Tuition at the University of Virginia went up by 9.9 percent for in-state students. Virginia Tech has approved similar increases.

According to Vice President for Finance Sam Jones ’75, the tuition revenue will account for over $7.8 million of the College’s operating budget, and will toward increasing financial aid, as well as a faculty and staff bonus totaling $2.143 million.

Faculty and staff have been subject to layoffs and frozen salaries since 2007.