It may not seem to come often, but we’d like to offer the administration our unequivocal praise for the University’s new financial aid initiative. Replacing loans with grants will offer important financial assistance for the University’s neediest students. All other financial aid students will undoubtedly benefit from an average four-year loan indebtedness reduction of 35 percent.
But what, we must ask, about the rest of us? If five percent annual tuition increases of the past few years are any indication, the price tag of a Wesleyan education is almost certainly poised to creep past $50,000 annually within the next few years, if not sooner. No matter what your financial background is, this is a serious cost. For others, it’s worse: a momentous economic burden. Factoring in loans, this burden can follow students long after a diploma is collected.
Middle-class students and their families are increasingly caught between not being poor enough for serious aid but not wealthy enough to painlessly shoulder the costs themselves. While a family may technically have just enough on paper to pay for a Wesleyan education, it doesn’t mean that paying the bill will be easy, or even particularly feasible.
We challenge administrators to investigate the potential for stabilizing tuition costs, or at least slowing down annual increases by matching them closer to the rate of inflation. In coming years, the loan replacement initiative’s scope should be expanded beyond just families with an annual income of $40,000.
Furthermore, we reiterate that the University spends its money as wisely as possible. Large sums should only be spent on projects and initiatives of necessity to the student body and faculty, and not on a building or program whose only real value will be as a stop on the campus tour or a statistic in a college guide.
We’re impressed that President Roth was able to make this initiative a reality in his short time here, even if we’re a bit disappointed that it won’t help anyone until next year’s freshman class arrives. And though making the announcement at his inauguration may strike the cynical as a bit opportunistic, it’s a great way to get the word out and announce this decision in the most straightforward way possible.
A Wesleyan education will never be a bargain, but we hope that in coming years its price tag will begin moving in a direction other than up.
Leave a Reply