Joint Financial Study
The College has joined with eight other eastern universities and colleges in a consortium formed to make a cooperative study of thecost and financing of undergraduate education.
The study, aimed at a resolution of the financial crisis facing most private institutions, will be supported by a $310,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Other members of the consortium are Amherst, Brown, Harvard, M.T., Mount Holyoke, Princeton, Wellesley, and Wesleyan.
Submitting the grant proposal on behalf of the group, President Kemeny noted that "the crisis in higher education brought about by rising costs, expanding program demands, and decreasing sources of financial support has challenged colleges and universities to re-examine their plans for financing the educations they provide."
The group anticipates that the study will have national significance as a model for other educational institutions facing the same problems and may ultimately make possible a multi-institutional program to meet the problem of financing undergraduate college Plication." Results of the study will be made available to other institutions, and, in the event of ensuing action by the nine members of the consortium, others will be invited to join the program.
The four areas in which the study will collect data are (1) the total cost of undergraduate education, including instructional expense, housing, food, student services, support facilities, books, and personal expense, at each of the nine institutions; (2) the ability and willingness of families of all students (not only those receiving financial aid) to pay a share of that cost; (3) the ability of the students themselves to pay a larger share of the cost from future earnings; and (4) various plans for collection of fees and providing financial aid. The facilities of the Kiewit Computation Center will be used to store, tabulate, and analyze the data.
December 1972 has been set as the target date for completion of the study so that indicated programs or policy changes might be implemented before the Class of 1977 matriculates.
