Peterson Says He Doubts That Harvard Will Adopt Tuition Deferment Plan

It is unlikely that Harvard will join Yale and Duke and adopt a tuition deferment plan, according to Chase N. Peterson '52, dean of Admissions and Financial Aids.

Peterson discussed Harvard's plans on Sunday in light of reports that Govenor John J. Gilligan of Ohio will introduce later this week legislation which would create a new form of deferred tuition that would require virtually all the students in the Ohio public university system to repay eventually the cost of their education.

If enacted, the Ohio Plan would be the most radical deferment plan in the nation and the first proposed by a state school system.

Peterson raised three objections to the tuition-deferment plans:

That the poor, for whom the plans are chiefly intended, will be the least willing to bear the burden of a long-term debt;

That the plans will encourage legislators and university officials to free themselves of the responsibility of aiding the young;

That the moral obligation to repay the university is stronger than any legal bond. "It would be foolish," Peterson said, "to throw away three million in alumni gifts for two million in tuition."

Peterson expressed relative satisfaction with the current three-fold University loan system, jointly funded by the National Defense Education Act, the Government Insurance Loan Program and Harvard's own loan pool.

Good Faith

He urged the advocates of the Yale Plan, which essentially offers all Yale students the opportunity to pay their tuition over a 35-year span, "to be very cautious because it's based on predictions and good faith and it wouldn't take much to bankrupt a university."

Despite several proposals to increase tuition fees at UMass, the Massachusetts legislature has introduced no deferred tuition plans, according to Charles Flaherty, a state representative from Cambridge. Flaherty said Sunday night that he would oppose a tuition deferment plan because "we have a responsibility to make education an avenue broad enough for all to travel."