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NewsvineThe University is expected to announce changes to its financial aid and tuition policies next week, the chair of Stanford’s Board of Trustees said Monday.
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The announcement will come more than two months after Harvard University declared it would significantly increase financial aid granted to middle-class and upper-middle-class students. Several schools, including Yale and Dartmouth, made similar announcements amid growing concerns that tuition at some of the nation’s top universities is becoming too high for families to afford.
Board of Trustees Chairman Burt McMurtry M.S. ‘59 Ph.D. ‘62 praised Stanford for improving its financial assistance programs annually for the last few years. But he also recognized major announcements coming from other universities regarding their aid policies.
“Since we are competing for students with them,” McMurtry said, “we really want to make sure that our financial aid policies are consistent with where we really want to be. This, as you might guess, is very complicated.”
McMurtry said the changes, discussed at the Board’s February meeting, have been made possible through donations to The Stanford Fund and fundraising campaigns by President John Hennessy.
The announcement also comes after the members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee requested information from Harvard, Yale and 134 other schools about their endowments and whether they were making enough funds available to make colleges more affordable.
McMurtry said Stanford was the first university to make a meaningful move in this field after the Board decided last year to raise the payout rate of the University’s endowment from 5 percent to 5.5 percent. This increased payout has helped fund capital projects and financial aid programs.
Stanford’s endowment grew about 21 percent last year to $17.1 billion.
McMurtry said the Board had been wrestling with saving the funds for the benefit of future students and the option of deploying more funds for current students.
“We felt it was important to [bolster our aid],” he said.
McMurtry also said he was satisfied with the number of applicants to Stanford this year. Although the number of early applicants declined from the previous year, the Office of Admission reported that the number of applications processed as of Feb. 6 was 24,864, an increase of more than 1,000 applicants from the previous year.
“There is no concern on the number of applicants,” McMurtry said. “There remains a concern about how we select from so many qualified people.”
Board members further discussed plans for a new performing arts center near Frost Amphitheater that will house a 900-seat theater for music concerts and a smaller venue for theatrical performances.
The Board also considered plans to replace the Stanford Track House with a visitor center that will offer campus tours, which are currently facilitated through Visitor Information Services at Memorial Auditorium. It gave preliminary approval for the construction of a parking structure on the east side of Maples Pavilion.
McMurtry also said the University will hold a formal dedication ceremony on Mar. 4 for the opening of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment and Energy Building. He said he was excited about the possibilities of concentrating strong faculty from multiple departments who will work together on world problems.
“It’s our most dramatic statement by far in trying to do sustainable building,” McMurtry said, referring to the high environmental standards the University agreed to meet in the building’s construction. “It serves as a model for what we should be thinking about for practically all of our construction.”