In-state undergraduates attending the College of William and Mary for the 2007-08 academic year will pay $5,595 annually for tuition, an increase of $415, according to a proposal adopted Friday by the William and Mary Board of Visitors.

“We realize that a cost increase of any size can greatly impact our students with financial needs, but we are determined to keep William and Mary accessible to students from all economic backgrounds,” said Samuel E. Jones, vice president for finance at William and Mary. “The new budget takes this into account and approximately $700,000 of the revenue generated from tuition increases will go toward financial assistance programs,”

In-state undergraduate students will pay a total of $16,595 for tuition, fees, room and board – a 7.6 percent increase over the current year. The total increase amounts to $1,173 per year for Virginia undergraduates.

The $415 tuition (8 percent) increase for in-state undergraduate students is broken into two distinct elements. The initial 6 percent increase provides support for the College’s academic programs while allocating the College to receive incremental state support from the Tuition Incentive Fund established by the General Assembly, Jones said. The remaining 2 percent of the increase will provide funds for in-state undergraduate need-based student financial assistance.

“The balance of tuition revenue is supplemented by incremental state dollars, allowing the College to address targeted areas of investment across campus, including faculty and staff salaries, faculty research, graduate student aid, base operations, operating costs associated with new facilities coming on-line, and the continued restructuring of various College activities,” Jones said.

Jones said that the tuition increase will allow the College to make significant progress in its Six-Year Academic Plan. One goal of the investment plan is to enable the College to provide an average faculty salary equivalent to the 60th percentile of the average faculty salary of its peer institutions within the next three years. By providing a 5 percent increase for teaching and research faculty members, the budget keeps the College on pace to achieve this target by the fiscal year 2010.

Jones went on to explain that William and Mary expects to maintain its current standard of having Virginians represent 65 percent of its undergraduate student body, as it has in recent years.

“We strive to keep cost increases to the absolute minimum necessary for maintaining the high-quality educational programs that William and Mary is known for,” said Jones.

Out-of-state undergraduates in 2007-08 will pay a total of $34,319, a 7.3 percent, or $2,339, increase over the current year.

Proposed 2007-08 tuition and fees for in-state students in the College’s graduate program are as follows: Graduate Arts and Sciences, Education and Marine Science, $9,800, up from $9,414; Law, $18,336, up from $16,600; Business, $18,124, up from $16,564.

Proposed 2007-08 tuition and fees for out-of-state students enrolled in these schools are: Graduate Arts and Sciences, Education and Marine Science, $23,014, up from $22,238; Law, $28,536, up from $26,800; Business, $31,924, up from $30,364.