Need-Blind Matriculation
A study published this month by the Lumina Foundation for Education called Dartmouth's tuition "unaffordable" for low to median income students while asserting that a vast majority of U.S. colleges and universities do not provide enough financial aid.
While no one can deny that the $140,000 cost of an Ivy League education is high, the study failed to take into account the need-based financial aid packages that actually are available. Specifically, the study compared each school's average financial aid package to a low-income student's ability to pay, overlooking the fact that schools offer underprivileged students larger-than-average grants and loans.
Although the Lumina study's failure to consider existing aid packages represents a critical methodological flaw, its conclusions focus national attention on a very real problem: low-income students cannot afford to attend elite private institutions like Dartmouth, even if they are offered financial assistance.
Even generous grants do not cover all expenses, deterring qualified low-income students from even matriculating. And with work-study requirements to meet and loans to pay off, underprivileged students who do arrive at the College must make great sacrifices in the name of education.
We encourage the College to substantially increase aid packages by eliminating loans in favor of grants, as Princeton University did last year. With more money available to students, not only admission but also matriculation itself can be need-blind.
Return on Investment
Student organizations at Dartmouth suffer from no shortage of funding. The Council on Student Organizations, better known as COSO, is charged with returning roughly $180,000 a year of students' money by sponsoring student groups and their activities.
As a group that exerts a tremendous power over the extracurricular atmosphere at the College, however, COSO needs to be far more transparent. The manner in which the members are chosen -- with current and outgoing members soliciting and evaluating applications from freshmen -- is too closed. This self-selecting process allows for undue administrative influence on the group's decisions. In combination with the fact that a term on COSO lasts for the entirety of one's Dartmouth career, these circumstances make for a group that has no accountability to the community it is supposed to serve.
Leaders of the Student Assembly and COSO must follow through on discussions to develop a new selection system eliminating the permanent group membership. Half of the organization's members should be elected by the general student body. In order to preserve the group's diversity -- one of COSO's strong suits -- the other members should be chosen by a committee composed of Assembly and COSO members, with no administrative oversight.
For $180,000, Dartmouth students have purchased the right to a representative organization. It is time for COSO to pay up.
The Drive to Serve
Dartmouth's work-study program came under fire this month when an article in The Washington Monthly reported that many elite schools give community service an inadequate percentage of their federal work-study subsidies. At 6.1 percent -- the government mandates a minimum of 7.0 percent -- Dartmouth's community service allocation puts it among the least charitable work-study programs on the East Coast.
The Tucker Foundation fosters a thriving service mentality at the College. For work-study students, Dartmouth's values aren't lacking; its opportunities are.
With a full course load, finding the time for volunteer work is difficult. Add in 20 hours of work-study each week, and it becomes nearly impossible. When the College relies predominantly on unpaid community service programs, the upshot is that some students, on the basis of their financial standing, are denied the opportunity to get involved.
The solution is to put more work-study funding into the non-profit service sector such that Dartmouth meets and surpasses the government's nominal 7.0-percent requirement. More than 1,000 students participate in Dartmouth Community Services each year, so the drive to serve is clearly present.
Give every student a chance to contribute.
