At its March meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to approve a 3.94 percent increase in the total cost of attendance, according to Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid in an email to the Justice.

De Graffenreid said the Board approved the fiscal 2014 budget, which maintains a "commitment to financial aid," and "supports the academic and student institutional priorities, including maintaining class sizes and student-instructor ratios."

The tuition of a continuing student will be $43,980. When taking the technology and health fee, the student activity fee, and housing and dining expenses into account, the total cost for a continuing student will be $58,170. In comparison, the tuition for a new student will be $44,380 and the total cost will be $58,570

De Graffenreid said the fiscal 2014 budget also "includes extensive redeployment of resources through efficiency and procurement improvements, as well as sustaining aggressive annual giving and endowment funding targets."

When asked to explain the "redeployment of resources," De Graffenreid wrote, "we are looking at ways to improve our business processes, for example by negotiating better prices for the things the University has to purchase every day, and that is the redeployment of resources. The savings will be reinvested into the operating budget."

Earlier this month, in a statement to the press, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel said that the administration anticipated a four percent increase in the cost of attendance.

Last spring, tuition and fees were raised by 4.1 percent for returning undergraduates and 4.85 percent for new students. Following the cost hike, the Boston Business Journal ranked Brandeis University as the second most expensive college in Massachusetts.

--Marissa Ditkowsky and Andrew Wingens
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