165 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
165 lines
7.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2015-12-20T20:45:38.000Z'
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title: The $10,000-a-year college education has arrived (1981)
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url: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/19/nyregion/the-10000-a-year-college-education-has-arrived.html
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author: Futurebot
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points: 98
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 145
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1450644338
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_Futurebot
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- story_10768239
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objectID: '10768239'
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year: 1981
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---
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Correction Appended
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Correction Appended
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The price of a college education, which hard-pressed parents have long
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said is going through the roof, has done just that - only there is
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apparently no longer a roof. As Gertrude Stein said, ''When you get
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there, there is no there there.''
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For 1981-82 undergraduates, tuition charges alone are crashing through
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the $7,000 barrier for the first time. Total fees, including room and
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board, are not only shooting past $10,000, but also emerging strong on
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the other side at such pace-setting schools as Harvard, Yale, Brown,
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Bennington, Columbia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
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Stanford.
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At several campuses, they carry such canny price tags as Princeton's
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$9,994. Outstripping the inflation rate by several points, the increases
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will commonly be 15 percent and often more. A benchmark 20 percent rise
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has been announced by Boston's Northeastern University for four of its
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colleges, where freshmen will pay $4,500 tuition, with a 16.7 percent
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rise to $4,200 at the other colleges. Cornell's endowed colleges will go
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up 18 percent to $7,000 tuition, with housing and dining increases
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expected to bring the total to $9,864. Student Aid a Concern
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The increases come at a time of severe concern over the Reagan
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Administration's announced goal of limiting Federal financial aid to
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students, and many schools are increasing their own budgets for student
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aid. ''I have never been so beside myself about financial aid, both at
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Barnard and across the country,'' said Suzanne Guard, the Barnard
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director of financial aid.
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At Amherst College, which expects a 13 to 15 percent increase above the
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present $8,450 comprehensive fee (compared with $3,600 ten years ago),
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70 percent of the students have federally guaranteed student loans. The
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college has budgeted its own financial help for 35 percent of next
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year's freshmen, as against 27 percent this year.
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''If there's no major reduction in Government loans and grants, we're in
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good shape,'' said Donald Routh, dean for financial aid. ''If there are
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reductions, then we have some very realproblems.''
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Around the country, campus press editorials and a scattering of
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demonstrations have protested the proposed rises in tuition and other
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fees. While some officials and students talk about ''pricing ourselves
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out of the market'' or ''getting beyond what the traffic will bear,''
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for the most part they report a mood of near resignation to what is
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considered inevitable. Some Students Protest
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At Fordham University, which has announced 13 and 14 percent increases
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in tuition, a demonstration was held recently on the Bronx campus, where
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total fees will go from $3,750 to $4,240. Seven students carried signs
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and chanted in the cold for 15 minutes before jamming their signs in the
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door of the administration building and dispersing.
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Students at New York University were described as ''complaining'' about
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increases of 14 percent for tuition, to $5,770, and 12 percent for
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living costs, but they were said to be more immediately concerned about
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possible cuts in Federal aid. Housing at N.Y.U. will go to $1,430 and
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the maximum meal plan charge to $1,384.
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Putting the blame on inflation, college officials cite soaring costs of
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fuel and insulation programs, food and equipment, as well as relatively
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modest faculty and staff salary increases of 9 to 13 percent.
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Administrators note in passing that income from endowments and other
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sources is not keeping pace with inflation.
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Announcing that Yale's undergraduate bill would be $10,340, President A.
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Bartlett Giamatti called it ''as low as it can possibly be'' in the face
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of energy costs, a decline in the purchasing power of endowments and
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Yale's decision to increase salaries.
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Columbia and Barnard, which expect to announce increases of at least 12
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percent, to about $10,300 and $8,840, respectively, are among the
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schools citing a need for improved security to justify the rises. State
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University Fees Up
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Tuition increases of at least 11 percent at the State University of New
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York - to $1,000 or $1,050 for undergraduates on 29 four-year campuses,
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compared with $550 a decade ago - were tentatively approved this month
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in an attempt to save most of the 440 faculty and nonfaculty positions
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believed lost in Governor Carey's proposed 1981-82 budget. The trustees
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also raised next year's dormitory fees by $150 a year, to $1,100.
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The breaching of both $1,000 levels, while psychologically dramatic in
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the state-supported system, still leaves the state university's 10-year
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increase slightly below the now typical 100 percent rate.
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Although the City University of New York is also heavily dependent on
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the state budget, it plans to remain at the $900 mark, reached four
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years after its schools began charging for tuition in 1976. ''We have
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absolutely no intention of increasing the tuition for next year,'' said
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James P. Murphy, chairman of the board of trustees.
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Total fees on nearly all campuses have at least doubled in the past
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decade - a period when the national consumer price index was rising 112
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percent - and most picked up speed in the later years. At Brown
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University, for example, next year's $10,242 comprehensive fee is up 110
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percent from $4,890 in 1970-71 and 78 percent from $5,750 in 1975.
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Princeton will break its own records with a 15 percent increase in
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tuition to $7,250. The total charges come to $9,994 -a 133 percent
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increase in the last decade. However, students and their families are
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urged to count also on an allowance of $1,055 (up from this year's $975
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estimate) for such expenses as books and laundry -not to mention the
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beer-and-skittles part of education - bringing the recognized total to
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$11,049. Bennington at High End
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With a mere 12.3 percent rise in total fees, Bennington College in
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Vermont may still present the nation's most expensive undergraduate
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bill: $10,560 for tuition, room and board. At Wesleyan University in
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Middletown, Conn., a planned 15 percent increase will bring student fees
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to $9,780, of which $6,850 is for tuition.
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Like many other schools, Harvard University cited ''steady inflation and
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rising energy costs'' for its $1,370 increase in undergraduate charges
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to $10,540, with tuition alone up 15.5 percent to $6,930. Henry
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Rosovsky, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, said an 80 percent
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rise in the price of steam for heat and hot water had contributed to
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Harvard's current annual energy bill of $27 million, up 25 percent in a
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year.
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Like other schools, too, Harvard maintains that ''families will still
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allocate about the same percentage of income in real dollars'' because
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college charges have only paralleled the inflation in the nation's
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disposable personal income.
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Many students and parents, however, note that money intended for college
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does not always come out of current income. When Deborah Levinger, a
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Brandeis University freshman from Sioux City, Iowa., started planning
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and saving for college five years ago, for example, she thought the
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money earmarked would last her through graduate school, with ''maybe a
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little left over.''
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''But now, by the time I get to grad school, I won't have any money at
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all,'' said Miss Levinger, whose 1981-82 tuition, board and room will be
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$9,824, compared with this year's $8,574. ''The cost is outrageous, but
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what can I do? Other schools I've looked at are in about the same
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range.''
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Illustrations: photo of students on Yale campus photo of Suzanne Guard
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and Mel O'Connor at Barnard table comparing tuition at ten colleges
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