Probe Targets More Schools

BOSTON--Justice Department investigators probing alleged price-rigging by colleges and universities have added at least nine more institutions, including six New England schools, to the investigation.

A total of 22 schools--including Harvard--are now under scrutiny, and some of them rank among the nation's most elite.

The latest nine schools to acknowledge that they have been contacted by federal investigators are: Brown University, Dartmouth College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Wellesley College and Wheaton College in New England; the University of Pennsylvania and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia.

The investigation reportedly focuses on the trading of information about tuition increases, faculty salaries and offers of financial aid.

"We have widened the investigation," said Gina Talamona, a spokesperson for the Justice Department. "It is possible that we will send out more...investigative demands in the future."

School officials say they routinely trade certain information so that each will offer roughly the same amount of financial aid to students, ensuring that money will not be a factor when students choose a college.

The president of Smith College in Northampton, Mary Maples Dunn, said she does not believe the school has violated federal anti-trust laws.

Smith, along with the other institutions, said it will cooperate fully with the investigation by providing information on how it sets tuition, faculty salaries and student aid, said Janet McNeill, a spokesperson for the college.

The 13 institutions that previously acknowledged receiving requests for information from Justice Department investigators are: Harvard University, Amherst College, Tufts University and Williams College in Massachusetts; Connecticut College, Trinity College and Wesleyan University in Connecticut; Bates College, Bowdoin College and Colby College in Maine; Middlebury College in Vermont; Hamilton College in New York, and the University of Chicago in Illinois.

There is little difference in total fees between the institutions under investigation. Most charge between $17,000 and $19,500 a year for tuition, room and board.