Follow Princeton's good move

I never thought of myself as a minority student. After all, I'm a white male from the Northeast who had the privilege of attending a private school, though I did so on scholarship. So imagine my shock when I learned from Yale's Office of Institutional Research that only 39 percent of Yalies in the 1998-99 academic year joined me in the cohort of financial aid recipients. And imagine my further surprise when the Yale Daily News reported that Perkins Loan recipients like me are from "the lowest income brackets" [YDN 1/29/01]. I know I'm not poor. I suppose I also know that Yale is a long way away from looking anything like the rest of the country. And that's why I'm excited about Princeton's recent replacement of student loans with outright grants. The new plan, which takes a hammer and chisel to the Ivy League's false idol of school-family "partnership," just might change higher education forever—and for the better.

Sadly, the Administration has so far responded with bland, defensive rhetoric. Provost Allison Richard, GRD '68, said the change could be "an excellent thing or an unfortunate thing." What? How can Princeton's effort to shed its good-old-boy exclusivity by giving money to low-income students possibly be "unfortunate?" If Yale can't pony up, the Administration should explain precisely why. Comments like Richard's, which take a pseudo-philosophical tack, merely appear dismissive and smug.

Ironically, Yale claims to be committed to precisely what Princeton is trying to achieve. In its financial report for '98-'99, Yale proudly claims to have achieved "total socio-economic diversity throughout Yale College." This nebulous term seems to suggest that Yale represents the "diversity" that exists in larger America—a ludicrous claim. Sixty percent of American families cannot pay $33,000 out of pocket for four years—not even in Canadian dollars. But Yale can easily become the mecca that its PR material depicts. Its endowment has increased about 40 percent beyond projections made just 10 years ago; each year, endowment spending totals about 50 times the $5 million dollars that Princeton's renegade new package will cost. Yale can afford to spread the love.

But it won't have to spread the love everywhere. After all, most Yalies don't need any aid at all. Graduate schools, meanwhile, drain far fewer resources than Yale would have us believe. The Schools of Nursing and Medicine, which ostensibly bring 692 more sucklings to mother Yale's proverbial teat, together earn $178 million for the University each year. Meanwhile, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, according to Associate Director of University Financial Aid Ceasar Storlazzi, "brings in a lot of outside grant money." And those graduate student loans? Last year, as usual, Yale sold many of those loans to other creditors, bringing $13.4 million into Handsome Dan's coffers.

Yale's been good to my family and me. Yale's recent policy changes have given my parents financial breathing room and allowed me to hit up T.J. Tucker's one extra night each week. But one of their most radical changes thus far—the protection of up to $150,000 of a family's assets—does nothing to improve life for students whose families have far less than that. As one of the world's premiere universities, Yale has both the resources and the obligation to discover and develop future leaders from all walks of life. It may take an increase in endowment spending to do it. That's okay; even with the adjustment, the golden goose we call the endowment would never shrink. It may even take a large tuition hike, but while that would slightly hurt the rich and what Yale dubs "middle class" families, it would benefit those who truly need it.

Maybe Yale's apprehension about the Princeton policy is, as Richard suggests, philosophically driven. If Yale does indeed follow Princeton's lead it must also greatly adjust how it interprets and enacts its mission. A truly enlightened aid policy cannot exist without a social and ethical commitment to real meritocracy. Rather than shooting for numbers that look good, Yale must take a chance on hard-working and brilliant students from the very poorest families and the very worst schools. It must rededicate itself to educating students, not just accepting kids from the best high schools and refining them. And it must show those stodgy Princetonians that they still don't matter. Five million dollars out of 10 billion? It would take so little money for Yale to do so much good.

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