The Same Old Story

FOR the ninth consecutive year, University officials have announced a tuition hike that exceeds inflation. Undergraduate fees for tuition, room and board and health charges will rise by 6.5 percent to $19,135. At this rate, a graduate of the Harvard Class of 2000 will have paid well over $100,000 for a college education, which will take up a larger part of a family's real income than it does now.

And once again, the University is giving us the same old line--that it regrets having to increase tuition, but, hey, quality costs money, you know. "Harvard strives to contain the rate of increase in tuition and fees while maintaining the quality of its undergraduate education and the physical condition of its facilities," Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence said. That statement is virtually identical to the one Spence made last year in justifying last year's 6.5 percent increase.

Every year, it seems, the same scenario takes place. The University announces a tuition hike that greatly outpaces inflation. It then tries to justify this high increase by blaming the Reagan administration's attempts to slash federal funds for higher education and emphasizing the high cost of maintaining competitive faculty salaries and upgrading the University's physical facilities. Financial aid officials then assure the two-thirds of the student body who receive financial aid that their needs will be met.

Granted, as officials in the University's financial aid office are quick to point out, the immediate effects of the tuition hike will be offset by increases in grants to students. Unfortunately, however, the effects of a 6.5 percent tuition hike are not quite so easy to gauge. A student from a modest-to low-income background may very well be irrevocably dissuaded from applying to Harvard by the news of another large tuition hike.

The University's tuition increases over the past two years even exceed the Higher Education Price Index, which tracks the prices of goods and services that colleges and universities purchase. According to D. Kent Halstead of the Washington-based Research Associates, which calculates the HEPI, these costs rose by nearly 5 percent last year, and will hover around 3 to 4 percent during the next several years.

WE have called in the past on the University to dip further into the interest on its $4.8 billion endowment to ensure that lower- and middle-income students will not be forced to choose between assuming large amounts of debt after graduation and attending Harvard. Clearly, the costs of running one of the world's preeminent research universities are enormous, but the University must make sure that it lives up to its commitment to offer education to students from all backgrounds. At the very least, the University should provide the student body with a credible, specific summary of where exactly its money is going.

YET what is perhaps most disturbing about the University's upcoming tuition hike is the continuing precedent it sets. Since many colleges follow the University's lead in tuition pricing, Harvard should take special care to hold its prices down. Indeed, in the past several years, Harvard and many of the nation's colleges and universities have been taking advantage of the prevailing attitude that larger tuition prices signify more prestige and high-quality education.

Thus, when prominent institutions like Harvard raise tuition-prices, others feel compelled to follow this trend and increase costs by similar amounts in order to keep up with the competition. Unfortunately, many of these schools cannot afford to be as generous as Harvard is in helping to alleviate the effects of such increases through financial aid.

The University would do well to consider those who shoulder the burden of a high-priced education the next time it calculates a tuition hike and recognize its responsibility to students, prospective applicants and the nation at large in keeping college costs in check.