High tuition reflects University's shift in emphasis
Charles Rice
Right or Wrong?
Every Christmas I get a personal, first-name invitation to join the Sorin Society. If I pay $1,000, benefits include "regional meetings" and the President's Newsletter. For $3,000 I could join the Founder's Circle and receive a video, an "ombudsman service" for tickets to non-athletic events and other comparable perks. I have not been able to join, but every year I feel a rush of self-esteem. This is recognition that I am a somebody, worthy to be a player in the University's inner circle.
One reason I would like to join is to ask the movers and shakers one question: With unprecedented sums cascading into the University's coffers, why does tuition keep rising beyond the inflation rate?
The Endowment in 2000 rose from $2.03 billion to $3.14 billion. Generations raised more than $1 billion, the Fiesta Bowl grossed $13.5 million. And so on. Undergrad tuition, room and board for 2000-01 is $29,100, an increase of 5.2 percent, in accord with the Trustees' mandate limiting increases to about 5 percent. While this is the smallest percentage increase in two decades, it is almost twice the rise in the consumer price index from1999 to 2000.
This is a symbolic issue. If tuition, room and board were frozen, that would not greatly benefit present students. On the other hand, a freeze would not cripple the University. The increase this year was $1,440. Notre Dame has 10,800 undergrad and grad students. If the charge had been frozen, the lost revenue would have been about $15.5 million. But some of that would have been "lost" anyway through scholarships, etc.
Increasingly, colleges, like used car lots, discount their "sticker price" through aid packages. But why should that process begin with a sticker price that rises every year above the inflation rate? And could not our fundraisers, the best in the nation, raise funds targeted to offset a freeze or even a rollback in tuition?
Our leaders act in what they see as the best interest of Notre Dame. These comments are directed at policies not persons. But the rise in tuition beyond the inflation rate reflects a change in priorities over the past two decades. Notre Dame here is a follower, not a leader.
In the nation generally, until the late '70s, tuition increased at or below the inflation rate. In 1978, in response to pressure from universities, Congress relaxed the income restrictions on federally guaranteed student loans. As Fortune magazine warned, "Anything that makes it easier to pay tuition bills will also make it easier to raise tuition charges." Since 1980, according to the College Board, median family income, adjusted for inflation, rose 20 percent while tuition at private four-year universities rose by 118 percent.
The universities lobbied Congress for funding for student loans. But as loan availability went up, so did tuition beyond the inflation rate, with those universities financing their research and other expansion projects on the backs of the borrowing students. Notre Dame was far from the worst offender. But after proclaiming itself a National Catholic Research University in 1978, Notre Dame did play this shabby game. In 1978-79, when the Endowment was only $114 million, Notre Dame's undergrad tuition, room and board was $5,180. Today, adjusted for inflation, that total would be $13,468. In 2000-01, the charge is $29,100, more than double, in real money, what it was in 1978-79.
Notre Dame makes a strong effort to provide financial aid. Last year University scholarships went to 35 percent of the students, up from 23 percent five years ago; the average such scholarship increased 50 percent over those five years. But the primary form of financial aid remains the student loan. The loan burden can be oppressive for students, distorting their career and family choices.
The historical mission of Notre Dame had been the provision of affordable education in the Catholic tradition to undergrads with research and grad programs in a complementary role. The relentless increase of tuition over the past two decades reflects a shift in emphasis to the pursuit of money and prestige as a Research University. A freeze or rollback in tuition could symbolize a redirection of that shift. Research is important, especially in the sciences. But Notre Dame ought not to have a regular faculty which teaches less and less to students who pay more and more.
In the pursuit of prestige and money, the undergrad mission is devalued. Members of our family were Notre Dame undergrads every year from 1977 to 2000 in various majors. Our experience, admittedly subjective but supported by others, is that, in the variety of available courses, class size, quality of teaching, and the recognition of students as persons, the undergrad experience at Notre Dame has deteriorated since 1977. And our leaders are not even close to finishing the "binge building" which has converted the formerly pastoral Notre Dame into a cramped, urban-style research campus.
If I joined the Sorin Society perhaps I could raise these questions. Maybe there's financial aid to enable guys like me to join. Maybe I could get a federal loan ...
Prof. Rice is on the Law School faculty. His column normally appears every other Tuesday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, January 17, 2001
