Rutgers Board of Governors Approves 2007-08 Budget that Balances Dual Goals of Ensuring Access and Providing Services to Approximately 50,000 Students

July 20, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RUTGERS BOARD OF GOVERNORS APPROVES 2007-08 BUDGET

THAT BALANCES DUAL GOALS OF ENSURING ACCESS

AND PROVIDING SERVICES TO APPROXIMATELY 50,000 STUDENTS

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NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. The Board of Governors of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, today established a $1.7 billion operating budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year. The budget includes $618 million in restricted revenues and auxiliary (self-supporting) enterprises. The remaining $1.1 billion in unrestricted revenues support the universitys basic instructional, research and service mission.

Student tuition and fees and the state appropriation, the two major sources of unrestricted revenues, both increase in the approved budget with state operating support up by $18.9 million and student tuition and fee revenue $38 million higher. The remaining unrestricted revenues grow by $2.5 million, while fringe benefits paid by the state are projected to remain flat.

In the budget approved by the board, total charges for a typical in-state School of Arts and Sciences undergraduate student living on the New Brunswick Campus will rise by 6.1 percent. An in-state, New Brunswick Arts and Sciences undergraduate will pay $8,540 in tuition and $2,145 in mandatory student fees in 2007-08.

Compared to the costs paid by a similar student at Rutgers College last year, annual tuition will increase by $617 (7.8 percent), while mandatory fees will increase by $110 (5.4 percent). Charges and increases may vary across the universitys campuses, schools and colleges. A typical student living on campus will see a 4.9-percent increase in housing and dining rates from last year (49 percent of New Brunswick undergraduates, 15 percent of Newark and 6 percent of Camden undergraduates live on campus).

The board also announced that it is allocating an additional $1.5 million in student financial aid to ensure that Rutgers remains accessible to a broad range of New Jersey residents. Increased state funding for the Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) program and rising federal support for

the Pell Grant program also will assist thousands of Rutgers students. Fifty-three percent of Rutgers undergraduates received need-based financial aid last year that offset their cost of attending college.

In the wake of last year, when Rutgers received a significant reduction in state funding and made deep cuts across the university, this budget represents welcome progress but includes no major new initiatives because of the remaining budget constraints, said Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick. The major increases in expenditures in the budget are related to mandatory increases for costs like fuel and utilities, debt service and contractual salary increases associated with union contracts.

The universitys budget also reflects a continuing concern with controlling costs. Compared to its peers nationally, Rutgers is leanly administered, and a recent study by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems found New Jerseys public research sector (including Rutgers) to be among the best in educational performance relative to resources. The universitys recently established permanent Committee on Efficiency and Entrepreneurship will continue to identify opportunities for savings that can be reinvested as well as new sources of revenue, helping to keep student charges down.

Contact: Greg Trevor

732-932-7084, Ext. 623

E-mail: gtrevor@ur.rutgers.edu

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