Tuition is merely another drop in the bucket

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Tuition makes up only 23 percent of Yale's revenue sources in the 1998-99 proposed operating budget.

When Yale parents received term bills in the amount of $30,830 at the beginning of the current academic year, they were presented with a strict breakdown of their payment. They mailed off checks thinking they were providing for every aspect of their child's Yale experience, with exactly $23,780 going towards tuition and $7,090 towards room and board.

In reality, tuition dollars aren't earmarked for any specific uses. Rather, they end up funding a variety of University programs and positions. "Tuition comes in as unrestricted income," Deputy Provost Charles Long said. He explained that all of the revenue is pooled together and then distributed between the different departments, making it "virtually impossible" to determine what percentage of undergraduates' terms payments fund the College. Long theorized, "Your tuition dollar cold go towards paying the salary of the dean of the School of Management."

Deputy Provost Lloyd Suttle agreed, stating, "Many assumptions are necessary if Yale were to estimate the percent of a Yale College education that is paid by tuition." He said any estimate would be extremely rough, involving "a simple figure [with] three pages of footnotes."

Long explained that the figures printed in undergraduate terms bills representing the cost of room and board and tuition are just approximations. "There are a number of reasons why [the Administration] cannot isolate the costs of room and food, including the inability to separate the space and attribute maintenance and depreciation costs on the buildings," he explained.

Though tuition and room and board fees comprise only 23 percent of Yale's revenue in the 1998-99 proposed operating budget, Long insists that the College still receives all the funding it requires to function and more. The existence of other major sources of income, such as the endowment, grants and contracts, and services provided by the School of Medicine, which make up 19, 27, and 16 percent of Yale's revenue, respectively, ensure that the University will be able to satisfy all the needs of its undergraduates.

In fact, Long said that the endowment covers a lot of undergraduate costs that don't fall under the stringent categories of either housing or academics, such as funding undergraduate organizations and renovating the residential colleges.

President Richard Levin, GRD '74, agreed. "Tuition only pays, at best, two thirds of a Yale education. We draw heavily from the income provided by the endowment," he stated.

Law School Dean Anthony Kronman described the numerous way in which undergraduates have utilized the Law School's facilities in the past, prior to the current construction activity. "Any undergrad can use our library for research, and it is also attractive as a study space," he said. "We also have a dining hall in the building that receives some traffic from undergrads." Kronman also noted that the Law School auditorium is used frequently by undergraduate lecture courses.

Ellen Alvord, Assistant Educator at the Yale University Art Gallery, commented that undergraduates often use the center to supplement their coursework. She cited Professor Vincent Scully's, JE '40, GRD '49, class, which features weekly sections held in the gallery, as an example.

Alvord said the Gallery is also trying to increase its contact with the College. One example is the Student Gallery Guide program, which was started this semester, in which 13 students ranging from sophomores to seniors are trained as student docents. "We hope to use students guides and student-led tours as an opportunity for other undergraduates to use and enjoy the gallery," Alvord said. In addition, the Gallery currently employs 50 work-study undergraduates.

With the endowment and other sources of income picking up the bill for the maintenance and accessibility of numerous campus facilities, including the newly renovated Payne Whitney Gym, Long believes undergrads are getting a great deal because "no matter how you cut it, Yale covers more costs for undergraduates than tuition pays."

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