Board Approves Tuition Rate

Tuition at Ithaca College will rise by 4.2 percent for the 1999–2000 school year, representing the lowest rate hike since before 1970. The Ithaca College Board of Trustees has approved a budget that sets tuition at $18,410, standard room and board at $7,956, and health insurance at $255, bringing the total cost of attending Ithaca next year to $26,621.

In a letter to students’ parents announcing the charges, Ithaca College president Peggy R. Williams wrote that the modest increase reflects the College’s ongoing commitment to strictly controlling costs while continuing to enhance academic programs. "We will make capital expenditures to improve technology on our campus, upgrade and enhance facilities, and provide equipment that will insure a quality experience for all our students." She noted that four new buildings — an observatory, an academic facility for health sciences, a fitness and recreation center, and the James J. Whalen Center for Music — will have opened by the time the current academic year has ended.

"We also continue to work toward making an Ithaca College education accessible for all students through our comprehensive institutional financial aid," Williams wrote. She expressed concern about New York governor George Pataki’s proposed state budget, which calls for cuts in the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). She asked parents who are New York residents to write to the governor and their state legislators to urge them not to alter this effective and beneficial financial aid program.

Williams also pointed out that Ithaca’s tuition is low compared with regionally competitive private institutions. In a group of 20 such colleges and universities surveyed annually, Ithaca’s tuition for next year will still be lower than what all but two of those institutions are charging for this year.