Rutgers Approves Tuition Hike; President Barchi To Step Down

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — For the fourth year in a row, Rutgers approved a tuition hike at its monthly Board of Governors meeting. In unrelated news, Rutgers President Robert Barchi publicly announced Tuesday that the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year will be his last as university president.

This all occurred Tuesday, when the Rutgers Board of Governors held its monthly meeting. The Board approved a tuition and fee increase of 2.9 percent for the 2019-2020 academic year, as part of their overall approval of the $4.6 billion budget.

This is the fourth third year in a row there has been a tuition increase at Rutgers. In 2018, as Patch reported, the Board of Governors approved a 2.3 percent hike. In 2017, it went up 1.85 percent tuition and it went up 1.7 percent hike in 2016.

With the new tuition hike, for the 2019-2020 academic year — before any financial aid is applied — a typical in-state, full-time Arts and Sciences undergraduate at Rutgers University-New Brunswick would be billed $15,407 in combined tuition and mandatory student fees. For such a student living on campus, total charges (tuition, fees, room and board) would increase to $28,482, up 2.9 percent from last year.

Rutgers said the tuition hike was needed mostly to pay for staff salaries. Compensation for university employees accounts for 65 percent of the total budget, said the school in a statement. Earlier this year, Rutgers reached agreements with teacher labor unions that included a 3 percent salary increase for unionized faculty and staff.

Teachers threatened to strike if they weren't given the pay increase.

Rutgers president to resign after 2020

Barchi's announcement he will be stepping down was unrelated to the tuition increase. Barchi was originally a professor before he became university president and he will return to teaching at Rutgers after 2020, the school said.

2020 will be his eighth year at the helm of Rutgers.

Under Barchi's leadership, Rutgers created the school of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and later oversaw the partnership to create Rutgers-RWJBarnabas Health, forming one of New Jersey's largest health systems.

Under Barchi, Rutgers also joined the Big Ten athletic conference, although Rutgers is ranked at the bottom of the conference.

Enrollment at Rutgers has also risen under Barchi, going from 58,000 students in 2102 to more than 70,000 today. In 2016, Barchi was instrumental in getting then-sitting President Barack Obama to speak at Rutgers' 250th anniversary commencement address.

Barchi is paid an annual base salary of $705,305, with an opportunity to collect up to $176,326 in lump-sum payment based on performance, MyCentralJersey reported.