Summers Touts College Aid Legacy

At 9 a.m. yesterday morning, about 50 College students joined former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers for a discussion of financial aid policies over a catered breakfast sponsored by the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative.

Summers announced HFAI—a program aimed at reducing low-to-moderate income students’ economic barriers to attending Harvard College—in 2004 when he was president of the University.

“I had a chance to do a reasonable number of things in my life. I think helping to start HFAI was one of the most important things,” Summers said.

He said he was motivated to start the program because five years ago, only 10 percent of college students came from low-income families.

That, he said, “was not acceptable.”

One of the most noted changes Summers made to Harvard’s financial aid program was the elimination of parental contributions for low-income families.

The HFAI waived parental contributions for families with annual incomes of less than $40,000 in 2004.

Two years later, the cutoff expanded to $60,000.

And last year, it was announced that the costs to more affluent families would also be reduced by up to 50 percent.

Following Harvard, other schools including Yale and Princeton announced similar financial aid increases.

Summers, however, said this was not an area where he wanted Harvard to compete with other universities.

“As far as I was concerned, every good college in America emulated this, and so we didn’t get any competitive advantage in terms of recruiting students,” said Summers. “But there was that much greater effort to create equal opportunity in America.”

He then listed three areas in which he feels Harvard has not done nearly enough, including the inconsistent financial aid policies of Harvard’s graduate schools, the University’s role in promoting equal opportunities around the world, and the difference Harvard could make in primary and secondary schools.

“If you do a Google search... the only thing that exceeds ‘Harvard’ is ‘Coca Cola.’ We are in many ways a sort of iconic embodiment—legitimate or illegitimate—of America,” Summers said.

He then pushed for Harvard to wield its power in promoting equal opportunity.

“This is somebody who took an incredible leadership role,” Melanie B. Mueller ’01, director of the HFAI, said about Summers.

The event was originally at 10 a.m., but was moved to 9 a.m. due to a last-minute scheduling conflict of Summers.

“I’m going back to take a nap now,” said Scott M. Elfenbein ’11 after the talk. “I don’t usually get up this early, but I feel it’s important to hear major officials and professors to talk about important issues. Financial aid certainly is a big one.”