As expected, GW’s Board of Trustees approved a 5 percent tuition increase for rising juniors and seniors at its Friday meeting.

The decision puts next year’s tuition for juniors, excluding room and board costs, at $32,360. Rising seniors will fork over $32,060 to take classes next year.

On Feb. 9, at a meeting with student leaders, officials said they would recommend that the board institute a tuition hike between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent.

Incoming and current freshmen are not subject to the increase since they take part in a fixed pricing plan that assures costs will not rise throughout their four years at GW. Fixed tuition for the 2005 incoming class will be $36,370 per year.

To partly offset the tuition hike, the University will increase the amount of financial aid for undergraduates by $10 million to a total of $109 million.

“I’m never happy with tuition increases,” University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg said during an interview after the decision. “I always want it to be zero.”

Trachtenberg said GW’s increased cost of attendance is a reflection of the costs of different projects and services.

“When deciding tuition hikes, the administration seeks to balance student financial situations and the needs of the University,” said Louis Katz, GW’s executive vice president and treasurer. “Students also want good services and more services, which cost money, thus the tuition increase.”

Katz added that the University “understands that tuition increases affect students” and that the fixed pricing plan and additional financial aid are intended to help pay the cost of attendance.

“What we’re trying to do is put adequate aid in there to attract a higher quality student,” Katz said.

Trachtenberg said he is “hopeful” that an increased aid program will keep current students from being priced out of the University. Last week, officials said cases of students leaving GW because of rising costs are “very rare.” The University does not keep statistics about such departures.

During Friday’s general meeting, which preceded a closed-door meeting in which trustees approved the increase, Trachtenberg said application numbers are hitting a “plateau,” even though they are up from last year’s all-time high.

“Are we reaching the elasticity of our pricing?” he said.

Trachtenberg added during the meeting that while tuition is going up, less prospective students are applying for financial aid.

“Once we get students here we’ll do some focus groups and analyze what’s transpiring,” he said. “We don’t want a student body of people exclusively who can afford us.”

In a 15-minute address to the Board of Trustees, Student Association President Omar Woodard urged restraint in deciding tuition for students who are not on the fixed tuition plan.

“Middle-class families are struggling and we need to understand that,” he said. “The minimum (tuition) increase is in the interest of rising juniors and seniors who have no minimum financial aid commitment from the University.”

Woodard also suggested that the University seek “to become smaller to make its dollars stretch,” in order to prevent large increases in the future.

In addition to approving undergraduate tuition adjustments, the board also signed off on a 5.5 percent tuition increase for students taking graduate programs. The cost of going Law School will go up 5.8 percent. First-year students in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences program will see their tuition go up by 3 percent, and second, third and fourth-year students in the same program will see a 2.1 percent rise.

-Michael Barnett contributed to this report.