On Wednesday night, Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) hosted Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance and Treasurer Matt Orlando in Mills Hall to discuss the major hike in the College’s comprehensive fee for this academic year. The 2025–2026 comprehensive fee, which includes the cost of tuition, room and board and other mandatory fees for students, increased by 5.8 percent for 2025–2026 to $91,300.

Orlando’s presentation concentrated on the necessities of Bowdoin’s operating budget as the reason for the increase. While year-over-year inflation in the Northeast over the last six years has been under four percent, Orlando said that the College’s spending makeup is different from most measures of inflation and has risen more quickly.

Sixty-two percent of the College’s operating budget is dedicated to personnel expenditures, 31 percent to goods and services and the remaining seven percent to debt interest, according to Orlando’s presentation.

The spending categories with the largest percentage increases since 2019 are health benefits and software, both of which have climbed nearly ten percent per year in that timeframe. Orlando displayed graphs showing the skyrocketing cost of health insurance policies and also cited the Workday project as a major new software expenditure, adding that the College borrowed money to fully fund its Workday transition.

During the Q&A session, BSG Special Advisor Elliot Ewell ’27 referenced claims that the Workday transition would help the College conserve resources and asked if Workday will help Bowdoin save in other areas given its high cost.

Orlando replied that Workday’s advantages mostly come from improved information management and analytics rather than cost savings. He added that the academic component of Workday was the most expensive piece of the project.

“I’ve yet to see any software system that saved money,” he quipped.

Despite the significant increase in student fees, Orlando noted that most of the recent increases in the operating budget have been covered by support from the endowment rather than tuition, since increases in student aid have led to slower growth in the College’s fee revenue. The endowment currently funds half of Bowdoin’s operating budget.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed earlier this year, introduced a new tiered endowment tax on colleges and universities, but colleges with less than 3,000 students were exempted. Orlando said he lobbied federal legislators for the exemption and added that if Bowdoin were subject to the tax, the College would have had to introduce significant cost cutting.

Orlando explained that each year, Bowdoin draws five percent of the endowment’s average value over the previous three years, which allows years with better returns to protect the budget in years when the endowment underperforms.

“I can use that reserve to help supplement [off years],” Orlando said.

The most recent valuation of Bowdoin’s endowment was just under $3 billion. When asked by students why the College doesn’t choose to draw more from its endowment, Orlando pointed to the Board of Trustees’ bylaws and the importance of prudent spending.

“An eight percent draw [from the endowment] is going to hurt the person sitting in your chair in 20 years,” Orlando said.

Comparison to peer schools is at the center of Bowdoin’s planning of its comprehensive fee, Orlando said. He added that despite the large percentage increase, the College is in the middle of the pack when compared to peer institutions, a position he described as favorable. Orlando speculated that schools like Bowdoin will have comprehensive fees above $100,000 within a few years.

“Nobody wants to be the first, but I think within two years, for sure. [Bowdoin is] probably three years away,” he said.