如何遏制大学学费上涨风潮

    你可能是优等生、校队队员和伟大的人道主义者，但如果你不是富人子女的话，就只能在候补名单里等着。起码美国的乔治华盛顿大学（George Washington University）最近就曾经公开表态，它会优先录取申请更少资金资助的申请人。这是“富人照顾措施”系列案例中的一例。

    多年来，乔治华盛顿大学自称“无视需求”，换言之，就是对两个资历相似的申请人，从不按照他们财富的多寡区别对待。但是，本月早些时候，这所大学却改变了立场，尽管此前一周末它在招生新闻发布会上还坚持上述立场。乔治华盛顿大学目前开始“对需求有所意识”，意味着会将那些要靠资金资助的申请人从“录取”栏转到“候补”栏中。

    “我希望我们的大学成为一所‘无视需求’的教育机构。但实际情况是，我们认为，要满足最大多数学生的资金需求，同时招收学术过硬、构成多样的的生源，目前的政策是最好的办法，”乔治华盛顿大学校长斯蒂文•卡纳普对该校校报《The Hatchet》表示。

    校报的相关报道指出，乔治华盛顿大学获得了13.7亿美元的捐款，与“无视需求”的同类院校相比，例如西北大学（Northwestern's ）71亿美元的捐款，可谓“相形见绌”。说实话，乔治华盛顿大学已经参与到一场无休无止的军备竞赛当中，院校相互竞争，争夺富裕学生（能全额支付学费的学生）。为什么呢？因为在大学捐款方面，争取捐款金额的多少取决于学校的声誉。

    不妨看看《美国新闻与世界报道》（US News & World Report ）声名狼藉的大学排名。学生人均财力（简言之，就是他们消费的水平）高，学校的排名就高；而排名前五的大学所得捐款均超过75亿美元。在这个排名系统里，院校的利益同学生的利益不再一致。

    例如，乔治华盛顿大学斥资1.3亿美元修建新的“超级宿舍”，3,300万美元修建纺织品博物馆。宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）近期斥资1,000万美元重修体育馆，增加奥运会标准泳池、男女桑拿、果汁吧、高尔夫模拟器和攀岩墙。作为文理学院的凯尼恩学院（Kenyon College）则斥资7,000万美元修建了一个具有乡村俱乐部风格的运动中心。

    上述这些设施将成为一种砝码，吸引能支付全额学费的学生；但是，所有这些设施最终会拉高教育成本，会让美国1万亿学生贷款危机雪上加霜。另外，这些设施与高校的核心竞争力有些格格不入。乔治华盛顿大学的办学宗旨是“致力于知识的创造、传播和应用”。建超级宿舍和这个宗旨能扯上关系么？

    为了担负这些舒适享受的成本，院校将越来越倚重学费收入。25年前，学费收入占公立大学收入的25%，而现在已经增长到占据半壁江山。学费成本在攀升，联邦政府却在不断减少对大学的补助拨款。乔治敦大学（Georgetown University）的研究人员发现，最具竞争力的大学中，只有14%的学生来自收入处于平均线以下的家庭。过去二十多年里，这个比例从来没有上胜过，说明大学所谓生源多样化的许诺并没有兑现。

    You might be an honor roll student, varsity athlete, and great humanitarian, but if you're not the son or daughter of an affluent person, good luck getting off the wait list. At least that's what George Washington University just confessed by revealing it gives preferential admissions treatment to applicants who need less financial aid. It's the latest in a series of "affirmative action for the wealthy" cases.

    For years, GW claimed to be "need blind," in other words, unbiased in factoring one's financial status when deciding between two similarly qualified candidates. But earlier this month it retracted that position despite touting it as recently as the previous weekend in an admissions information session. GW's new status is "need aware," meaning the university can shift applicants from the "admitted" pile to "waitlisted" if they depend on getting financial support.

    "I would love to see us become a need-blind institution. As matters stand today, however, we believe that our current practice is the best way to meet the financial need of as many students as possible while recruiting an academically strong and diverse student body," University President Steven Knapp told GW's student newspaper The Hatchet.

    The paper also reports that the university's endowment of $1.37 billion "pales in comparison" to peer institutions that are need-blind, citing Northwestern's $7.1 billion endowment. But let's be honest, GW is really part of an unremitting arms race, in which they're vying with competitor schools to entice wealthy students (who can afford to pay face value for their education). Why? Because in the world of college endowments, the size of your proverbial war chest equates to your amount of prestige.

    Look no further than the notorious US News & World Report rankings for guidance. The rankings reward colleges on their financial resources per student (in essence how much they spend), and it just so happens that the five top universities on its list all have endowments bigger than $7.5 billion. This is where the interest of colleges and their students are no longer aligned.

    For example, GW just built a new $130 million "super dorm" and $33 million textile museum. It is not alone. The University of Pennsylvania's gym recently underwent a $10 million renovation to include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, co-ed sauna, juice bar, golf simulator, and climbing wall. Kenyon College, a liberal arts school, has a $70 million athletic center with similar country club features.

    While these amenities are definitely an attractive proposition to prospective students at face value, what they really end up doing is spiking tuition costs, further contributing to America's $1 trillion student loan debt crisis. Additionally, these facilities are inconsistent with the core competency of higher education institutions. To be quite literal about it, the mission of GW is to "commit itself to excellence in the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge." Are super dorms inherent in this thesis?

    To offset the costs of their cozy amenities, colleges are also more dependent than ever before on tuition money, which now accounts for half of public university revenues, up from a quarter 25 years ago. And while tuition costs are rising, federal spending on college aid is decreasing. Researchers at Georgetown University have found that at the most competitive colleges, only 14% of students come from the lower 50% of families by income, a figure that has not increased over more than two decades, which indicates that university pledges to diversify have not materialized.