PU increases student aid grants

   The trustees of Princeton University have approved increases in the university’s endowment income spending that will increase grants for all students who receive financial aid.
   The increase will also provide all juniors and seniors on financial aid with sufficient support to enable them to cover the cost of an average membership contract at the eating clubs, university officials said.
   The trustees also approved spending increases for other initiatives in undergraduate education, graduate education, research competitiveness and alumni affairs.
   "These additional investments in undergraduate financial aid enhance Princeton’s affordability in two respects," said President Shirley M. Tilghman. "They provide even more grant support in what is already the most generous financial aid program in the country, under which no student on financial aid is required to take out a loan. They also remove financial barriers for financial aid students who would like to join eating clubs. I hope this additional aid will enable a wider range of students to think about joining the clubs, thereby making them more diverse and more fully reflective of the student body than they are today."
   Under the new policy, effective with the 2007-2008 academic year, aid levels for all juniors and seniors on financial aid will be calculated assuming a board rate that is set at the average cost of an eating club membership contract not including social fees. At $6,300, this currently is about $2,000 higher than the university’s typical meal plan, $4,315 for this academic year.
   This higher board allowance will be included whether or not the student joins an eating club so that juniors and seniors on financial aid who join clubs will have sufficient support to allow them to afford club contracts while non-club members will have the same level of support to help them cover other expenses, officials said.
   With the increased endowment spending levels, the university also will reduce by roughly $500 a year the amount that students on financial aid are expected to earn from term-time jobs. This will result in an increase of roughly $500 in each aid student’s grant. Some 55 percent of this year’s freshman class is receiving financial aid, and the average grant for aid students is almost $30,000.
   These spending increases follow trustee approval last June of a $25 million increase in endowment income spending that was intended to bring spending into the lower end of the university’s target range of between 4 and 5 percent of the endowment’s market value.
   At their recent meeting, the trustees decided to expand the upper level of the target range of endowment income spending to 5.75 percent of market value, an adjustment that is expected to reduce the frequency with which spending falls outside the target range and increase the university’s long-term average spending rate.
   In addition to the enhancements in undergraduate financial aid, the approved increases will support expanded social, cultural, athletic and civic engagement programming in the residential colleges; improvements in the quality and variety of food served in the residential colleges; and additional investments in recruiting excellent and diverse undergraduate classes, the university said.