The Elon University board of trustees has approved the budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year, providing major new investments in programs and personnel, and funding several special initiatives. Details…
Setting 2008-09 costs:
Next year’s tuition and fees will be $24,076. Room and board for a typical student will be $7,770. This represents a total package increase of about 8 percent and maintains Elon’s position as a top value in private higher education. This year the cost of attending Elon is 8.8 percent below the national private university average and nearly 20 percent below the average cost of the other top-ranked private universities in the South.
Key investments:
Elon’s Career Services program will be expanded under the leadership of new director Tom Vecchione, who joins the university this spring from Ohio Wesleyan University. He brings an impressive track record of success in building a strong program that helps students get an early start on preparing for their career searches and supports them through graduation and beyond.
A new campus safety and security master plan will better prepare the campus community to deal with a variety of emergency situations. New investments include a campus warning siren system, text-message alert system, additional campus police and security officers, and new security stations that will be constructed at two main campus gateways.
Increased funding will support Elon’s signature study abroad programs, providing additional staff in the Isabella Cannon Centre for International Studies and underwriting costs associated with our growing semester study programs in Italy and Costa Rica.
Fourteen full-time faculty positions will be added to further reduce teaching loads and reduce reliance on part-time faculty. The university will also increase funding to support faculty research and development and sabbaticals. In addition, 16.5 new staff positions will enable Elon to keep pace with the demand for personnel to support growing programs and facilities.
A 10.4 percent increase in financial aid will provide major new investments in the Honors and Fellows programs, need-based scholarships, and scholarships to attract top athletes and those with special talents in the performing arts. Among the new scholarship opportunities is the Lumen Prize, a program to provide 15 rising juniors with $15,000 scholarships that support and celebrate exceptional academic achievement.
Elon is also making major new investments in sustainability, including electric vehicles, energy conservation systems, and a sustainability coordinator who will direct the university’s growing programs to reduce our environmental impact.