Dear AU Community:
The Board of Trustees winter 2025 meeting (February 27-28, 2025) highlighted the wide-ranging momentum and progress at American University and facilitated extensive discussions with students, faculty, staff, and trustees about future strategic directions and opportunities for AU. As trustees, these meetings are valued opportunities to engage with the AU community, hear your aspirations and your questions, and continue building a strong American University together.
Our meeting focused on top university priorities, including enrollment, strategic planning, university finances, and ongoing achievements that make AU distinct. President Jon Alger highlighted significant university actions and progress in core priorities, such as enhancing undergraduate and graduate enrollment actions for fall 2025; aligning the university budget to efficiently and effectively support our mission and our community; advancing academic programs in AI, democracy and civic life, and other rising topics; celebrating AU’s recent R1 status and continuing to build and support the unique AU research and teaching environment; and fostering a welcoming and connected campus community. He also updated the trustees about critical work to address ongoing federal policy changes and support the AU community.
Acting Provost Vicky Wilkins and Vice President Evelyn Thimba presented enrollment updates as we enter the key spring yield period. We are expanding international enrollment efforts for a variety of graduate programs, including through new partnerships. Thanks to increased engagement with prospective undergraduate students and families, the implementation of Early Action applications, and enhanced marketing, we achieved a record 22,700 undergraduate applications this year.
Vice President Bronté Burleigh-Jones summarized the campus safety review process, which recommended that AU maintain the current AUPD safety procedures and protocols where our campus police department utilizes less-than-lethal equipment including pepper spray and ASP batons. Vice President Burleigh-Jones affirmed the university’s decision to implement this recommendation, and the trustees expressed support for the approach. The process featured extensive community input across more than 2,600 survey responses and nearly 20 community forums, which also provided opportunities to continue fostering transparency, enhancing awareness of our safety efforts, and building trust across the community.
A core element of the winter board meeting is considering the university budget as part of our overall fiduciary duty. The budget reflects our university priorities and commitments––providing an affordable and accessible AU education for our students, investing in student thriving throughout the AU experience, and supporting a vibrant AU community. Following a presentation from Vice President Burleigh-Jones, we approved the proposed financial aid investments, tuition levels, housing and meal plan costs, and mandatory student fees for the FY26 budget. As we have done in recent years, we are taking a two-part approach to the budget to provide timely information to our community about pricing for the 2025-2026 academic year while providing the additional time needed to align with our ongoing university-wide work to review structures and operations. The second phase of the budget process will occur at our May meeting.
The trustees approved the following financial aid, tuition, and fee levels for academic year 2025-2026:
· Financial Aid––We continue to increase financial aid year over year as part of our ongoing commitment to students and families, even in times of budget constraints. Total financial aid will increase by $10 million, including $3.2 million above the standard annual increase linked to tuition levels to meet the anticipated need of our incoming class. Importantly, the average aid per student will rise by 12.9 percent, far exceeding the overall growth in cost of attendance. Our discount rate will reach 37.4 percent (42 percent for the first-year class).
· Tuition––Undergraduate, graduate, and law school tuition will each rise by 4 percent. The tuition increase directly contributes to our ability to invest more in financial aid. AU tuition levels remain at or near the bottom of our peer institutions, and our total undergraduate cost of attendance is the lowest among our competitive set of 25 peer universities.
· On-campus Housing, Dining, and Student Fees––Following the comprehensive renovations of Leonard Hall and McDowell Hall over the last two years and the planned renovations of Roper Hall and Clark Hall this summer, our on-campus housing facilities provide a vibrant, student-focused environment. To continue supporting the on-campus living experience, housing rates will increase by 4.5 percent next year. AU’s housing rates remain comparable to other Washington, DC, area institutions.
· Dining fees will increase by 4.5 percent, which is significantly lower than the FY25 increase, despite ongoing pressures from rising food and labor costs. The renovated Terrace Dining Room, comprehensive meal plan offers, and wide array of national dining brands such as Panera and Qdoba are delivering a high-quality experience for the community.
· AU student fees have not changed or increased for more than 10 years. After a thorough review of fee structures and pricing at peer institutions and discussions with the community, we are updating our overall fee approach. We will replace the outmoded Technology Fee and the Sports Center Fee with a comprehensive Student Support Services Fee of $1,100 per year for full-time undergraduate students (with lower fee levels for part-time and graduate and law students due to smaller usage of campus services). This inclusive fee will better support areas where student needs and service use have increased (e.g., mental health and wellness services), which have correspondingly increased costs in these spaces. The Student Activity Fee will increase to $350, which is in line with the median fee amount charged by AU’s competitors. Additional student activity resources will contribute to increased opportunities for student clubs and organizations and support funding for the Center for Student Involvement. While overall fee amounts are increasing this year, our levels are now competitive with our peer institutions.
Overall, the tuition, housing and dining, and fee levels will result in a 5.5 percent increase in the undergraduate cost of attendance. AU remains the lowest total cost in our market basket of 25 competitive and peer universities, and our significant increase in financial aid resources per student continues our commitment to affordability and access.
The second half of the Friday meeting featured an in-depth discussion of AU’s recently launched strategic planning process. Focusing on the guiding question of what makes AU distinctive, the trustees explored themes that will be at the center of the community engagement over the coming months. We look forward to hearing the ideas and feedback from the community and working towards the strategic “big bets” that will lead us into 2026 and beyond.
During our business meeting, we elected our 2025-2027 board officers and the 2025-2028 slate of returning trustees and approved two new trustees as well as the incoming student trustee and faculty trustee. Congratulations to Charlie Lydecker and Gaurdie Banister, who will serve as board chair and vice-chair, respectively, beginning in May 2025. Welcome to Debra Decker and Steven Poskanzer as our newest trustees who join the board in May, and congratulations to Marcus McNeill (2025-2026 student trustee) and Stephen Silvia (2025-2027 faculty trustee).
Finally, we were thrilled to welcome and salute H. Kent Baker in recognition of his generous, transformational, and historic gift to name the Linda A. and H. Kent Baker School of Education in memory and honor of his late wife.
This will be my last community message as I prepare to conclude my term as board chair in May. I want to thank you for your support and commitment to our mission. AU is on a strong and exciting trajectory with unlimited potential and possibilities ahead. It has been a great honor to serve my alma mater, support our inspiring students in their pursuits, and move our shared mission forward. I am excited for new opportunities to be part of this great institution.
The Board of Trustees will next meet on May 15-16, 2025. Good luck with the remainder of the spring semester, and we look forward to seeing you at President Alger’s inauguration on March 27-28, 2025.
Sincerely,
