Lobbied by international students, Student Assembly expressed support Tuesday for a need-blind admissions policy for all students, calling the current policy discriminatory on the bases of birth country and wealth. Currently, the admissions office considers ability to pay as a factor for applicants outside Canada, Mexico and the United States, though College admissions is need-blind for North Americans.
"Due to the limited resources available for financial aid, Dartmouth must take the financial resources of international applicants into account when making admissions decisions," the College's Admissions and Financial Aid website states.
The Assembly legislation issued a statement in support of changing the current policy to embrace need-blind admissions for international students.
"I think the idea is to bring this issue to a debate at Dartmouth," Assembly member Anoop Rathod '07 said.
David Ong '09, the treasurer of the International Students Association, spearheaded the most recent campaign to make Dartmouth need-blind for all international students in the fall of 2006. Throughout the term, the ISA attempted to contact the Admissions and Financial Aid offices to discuss international admissions standards but received no response.
"The Student Assembly will force the Administration to respond, which is a step up from what we have had beforehand," Ong said.
Making Dartmouth need-blind will cost $1.2 million annually, according to estimates received by Ong.
Though only two assembly members voted against the measure, several discussed concerns with its cost.
"I don't want to see the financial aid for current students cut as a result of this legislation," Tay Stevenson '10 said during debate.
While acknowledging the cost of financial aid, Ong said that these costs alone do not justify discriminatory policies.
"It seems that Dartmouth is legitimizing discrimination for international students," Ong said. "We are a meritocratic institution and should not discriminate based on wealth."
In an e-mail to The Dartmouth, Virginia Hazen, director of financial aid, explained that the admissions and financial aid office looks at international students differently due to the financial costs involved.
"These students generally have a high level of need and are not eligible for any U.S. federal financial aid funds," Hazen wrote.
Student Body President Tim Andreadis '07 said that this issue calls into question the College's priorities. If the College makes it a priority not to discriminate, he argued, then they should change their policy.
The decision to change this policy, Hazen said, must be made by "top administration" members.
In its mission statement, the ISA compares Dartmouth to Middlebury College, which has 60 percent of Dartmouth's per-student endowment, but has a need-blind admissions policy for international students. Middlebury, with a total student population of 2,350 undergraduates, has 216 international students -- 9.2 percent of the student body -- compared to Dartmouth's 206 international students -- 5.2 percent of the student body.
In addition to Middlebury, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Williams College and Yale University all have need-blind policies for international students.
Vlad Dobru '10, ISA's representative to the Assembly, said that the current policy harms Dartmouth educationally. Many of his friends from Romania decided not to apply to Dartmouth because it lacks a need-blind admissions program. Within the past four years, two class valedictorians and one salutatorian have been international students.
A candidate for the Board of Trustees, former ambassador John S. Wolf '70 has focused his campaign on attracting international students and making Dartmouth "globally competitive." ISA plans to lobby alumni support for their cause and remains hopeful about the election of Wolf to the Board, who would, they argue, help their efforts.
