With tuition on the rise once again for the 2015-16 school year, Washington University administrators unveiled a new official commitment for increased socioeconomic diversity on campus, specifically through the acceptance and support of more Pell Grant-eligible students.

Last Thursday evening, administration announced a plan to increase the number of Pell-eligible students on the Danforth campus to 13 percent by 2020. Pell Grants are only offered to students from lower-income families, typically those with incomes below $60,000. Washington University has lagged far behind peer institutions in this area, only reaching 8 percent of students eligible for Pell Grants for this year’s freshman class, while other schools with similar endowments have a median of about 15 percent.

Money to fund this new commitment will amount to $25 million annually, with sources of new funds for financial aid including redistributed merit aid, fundraising efforts and increased philanthropic efforts from each of the undergraduate schools.

Provost Holden Thorp has been working on this plan since his arrival at Washington University in 2013. He noted that this plan took time, only reaching a specific commitment now because of red tape issues.

“It was a matter of going around to get everybody who has to do something in order to make this happen to agree. In a university, that’s a lot of different people. That’s why it’s taken till now to get to this point,” Thorp said.

Thorp also said that the University’s priority over recent decades had been to build up its academic quality and status rather than focusing on socioeconomic diversity.

“We had to make sure that Wash. U. was a place that people really wanted access to. A lot of the work that Wash. U. has done in the last few years has been to make Wash. U. as attractive as it can be. The fact that people are pushing for access to Wash. U. is an affirmation of the great progress we’ve made and work we’ve done to make this the institution that it is,” Thorp said.

The University’s announcement included the promise of continuing to commit to socioeconomic diversity beyond the 2020 goal. Thorp said that although such plans are unclear that far in the future, he foresees these efforts as a baseline moving forward.

“Given the level of interest, its unlikely that we will go backwards [below 13 percent],” he said. “On the other hand, the University is around forever, so whether or not this is something to be sustained forever is something to be asked of the generations that come after us. But I want us to get to 13 percent and maintain that as a minimum going forward.”

Washington University Students for Socioeconomic Diversity (WU/FUSED) had been working on several campaigns to get the administration to make a solid commitment but were hoping for something closer to 14 or 15 percent by 2020.

“It’s definitely a positive step in the right direction, and it’s pretty much what we called for, just a little less ambitious,” sophomore Tia Caldwell, a member of WU/FUSED, said. “More pressure is always better. We’re still going to try to get more stories out there.”

Senior Sonya Schoenberger, another member of WU/FUSED, said she felt that the University’s shift in stance on the issue of socioeconomic diversity has been substantial.

“It’s been really gratifying to see the change in the administration’s attitude towards us…to see this kind of change in the past couple of years…we at WU/FUSED are excited about that,” Schoenberger said.

“We actually put out a petition at the end of last semester and one of the stipulations was that Wash. U. should be, in terms of its Pell Grant percentage, at the median of its peer group…around 13 percent by 2020, so it’s cool to see that that’s actually going to happen according to this plan. I think that’s all very good news,” she added.

But Schoenberger noted that the group has plans to continue its efforts in the future.

“WU/FUSED still wants to do some digging kind of deeper. I think there are certain programs that need to be in place alongside any kind of increase of Pell Grant students admitted because…if they’re going to have double the amount of Pell Grant students, how are we going to support them? Not only in terms of their tuition but also adjusting to University life and meeting their other expenses,” she said.

But even with this new commitment to socioeconomic diversity, University undergraduates will still be paying $1,600 more for tuition in the coming academic year.

In the press release on Thursday, Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote that the tuition increase is natural given the University’s goals but has been kept as low as possible.

“Our three key goals at Washington University continue to be ensuring a top-quality education, attracting a diverse student body and making it affordable to attend,” Wrighton wrote. “As our operating expenses increase each year with customary growth and inflation, we also are constantly working to implement cost-saving measures and shift priorities to allow for the lowest possible increases in tuition.”

University officials hail this increase as the smallest-percentage raise in decades, at only 3.5 percent, but tuition for the past several years has consistently risen by $1,600.

“Wash. U. draws attention to the fact that it’s the lowest-percentage increase ever, but it’s because they keep going up by the same dollar amount every year,” sophomore Morgan Hess said.

The required student activity fee for 2015-16 will again be equivalent to 1 percent of the tuition, at $473. The health and wellness fee will be $320. Charges for on-campus double-occupancy housing for 2015-16 will range between $9,482 for traditional-style and $10,486 for modern-style dorms, and underclassman meal plans for 2015-16 will range from $4,014 for the Bronze meal plan to $6,064 for the Platinum meal plan.