Ivy Schools May Share Financial Aid Data

Harvard and the seven other Ivy League schools are still considering whether to take advantage of a recent settlement between MIT and the Justice Department allowing limited cooperation between colleges on financial aid issues, President Neil L. Rudenstine said.

The settlement, reached in late December, ended more than two years of litigation over the issue of financial aid "overlap," the practice of schools sharing information about financial aid awards to prospective students and adjusting those awards.

Under the settlement, colleges are not allowed to discuss or agree upon specific aid awards for individual applicants, but may agree on principles for determining awards and may exchange financial information for verification through a third party.

But the agreement allows cooperation only between institutions which both practice need-blind admissions and provide full need-based aid to all students admitted.

"The real issue here is, given the extremely stringent requirements for meeting the test, whether in fact any institutions will end up agreeing to participate," Rudenstine said in an interview Monday. "From the liberal arts college point of view, the number that can think about this is small, if any."

Rudenstine said it was possible that no group of schools may end up participating. "It still remains to be seen whether there will be any participating group," he said. "I think from a practical point of view very few institutions will be able to commit to this because they simply can't afford it," he said.

Rudenstine, who is chair of the Ivy Group, said he has consulted with all the other members several times since the settlement.

He said that the schools will continue to discuss the matter among themselves and with their own governing boards. "[They] are thinking very hard, because it's not only a question of an immediate commit- ment, it's a prospective commitment to fullneed-blind admissions and full need-based aid forall students," he said.

After the settlement, Yale president Richard C.Levin said that Yale will go through otherchannels to attempt to relax some of therestrictions of the agreement.

Rudenstine said that Harvard will participatein attempts to attain any feasible legislation toease restrictions on who can participate incooperation under the terms of the settlement.

"If the judgment is that what we need islegislative relief... then we would certainly be astrong participant," he said. "If the consensuswere that we wanted to try for a broad aidagreement, we'd have to have legislative relief."

He also praised MIT for its role in obtainingthe agreement. "MIT did an extraordinary job,"Rudenstine said. "They fought a hard case for along time with tremendous resources...And also, Ithink the change in leadership at the JusticeDepartment helped there.

After the settlement, Yale president Richard C.Levin said that Yale will go through otherchannels to attempt to relax some of therestrictions of the agreement.

Rudenstine said that Harvard will participatein attempts to attain any feasible legislation toease restrictions on who can participate incooperation under the terms of the settlement.

"If the judgment is that what we need islegislative relief... then we would certainly be astrong participant," he said. "If the consensuswere that we wanted to try for a broad aidagreement, we'd have to have legislative relief."

He also praised MIT for its role in obtainingthe agreement. "MIT did an extraordinary job,"Rudenstine said. "They fought a hard case for along time with tremendous resources...And also, Ithink the change in leadership at the JusticeDepartment helped there.