Reference Publications

Too well endowed? - top colleges concerned with their endowments - includes related article on college fundraising

Washington Monthly, Sept, 1998 by Michelle Cottle

Clearly, something must be done to remind universities that their primary goal should be to provide students with the best education possible--not to give professors the most free time to pursue research and certainly not to see who can beg, scrimp, and invest their way to the first trillion-dollar endowment. Of course, getting schools' attention will probably require hitting them where it hurts: their wallets. Perhaps, to help get the focus back on teaching, we should implement exit tests for graduating college seniors. Any school that failed to provide students with a basic mastery of the field in which they majored would be ineligible for federal grant money of any sort. Educators would, of course, argue that no test can truly measure intellectual development. Perhaps. But students planning to pursue professional degrees already face comprehensive tests such as the LSAT (law school), MCAT (med school), GMAT (business school), and GRE. In fact, determining if a soon-to-be-graduate knows how to "think logically"--something the Carnegie report suggests is too often not the case--is a primary aim of the LSAT A similar exam could be designed and administered to students entering college, and again just prior to graduation to measure their progress.

A less formal but equally effective measure would be for students, parents, and alumni to start demanding more for their money. Even the most nostalgic, school-spirited alumnus should be disturbed by the Carnegie report; does this generation of Elis or Princetonians deserve any less of a quality education than previous ones? Before whipping out their checkbooks to donate another $500 or $500,000, alumni might want to register their concerns with the administration. (It's amazing how attentive administrators can be when money is on the line) If visible improvements don't start to materialize, and donations start to dry up, universities will listen.

There is already some indication that public pressure does work. Just this year, Princeton, concerned about a decline in middle- and lower-income applicants, announced plans to provide more student grants as opposed to loans. Yale promptly followed suit. (Harvard did not) A handful of universities, most notably Stanford and Columbia, also pledged to stop the widespread practice of reducing' school- awarded aid to students who win scholarships from other sources. Moreover, tuition increases have slowed considerably since 1993, though this may be less the result of public pressure than the fact that inflation is so low. Such actions are a clear step in the right direction. But they are only a first step--and a relatively small one. It's time to insist that our top universities start living up to their reputations--and their pricetags. Research assistance provided by Seth Grossman.