COLUMN: Rodin: Cut tuition if you can

From: Yoni Slonim's, "Taking My Turn At Bat," Fall '97 From: Yoni Slonim's, "Taking My Turn At Bat," Fall '97 If you could cut tuition without sacrificing anything, would you?" As we have come to expect, Larson received a few different answers to his seemingly simple question. Executive Vice President John Fry expressed doubts in lowering tuition by saying his "gut instinct would be to give it a go," but, remains wary for he knows the "sort of instinctive response is, 'Hey, we won't look as good as Harvard'." Admissions Dean Lee Stetson agreed that "a cut in tuition might indeed produce an impression of reduced quality." Interestingly enough University President Judith Rodin didn't seem to share in her colleagues reserve. When asked the same question she responded "Absolutely." I share Rodin's enthusiasm. As a challenge to prove her doubters wrong she should take it as a challenge upon herself to reduce tuition in our lifetime without sacrificing our education. Actually, Larson offers a few suggestions on how to reduce tuition such as annually spending a full 5 percent of Penn's actual endowment. However, I remain skeptical. Larson mentions what is known as the "University's spending rule which calls for it to spend 5 percent" of its endowment annually. But Penn does not spend 5 percent of the full endowment. Rather, it ends up spending only "2.8 percent of the current total of $2.1 billion." If Penn were truly interested in lowering tuition why would they try to get around an easy way to accomplish this. Simple, Penn can have its cake and eat it too. In fact, Associate Treasurer Lucy Momjian was quick to discount Larson's possible solution in Tuesday's Daily Pennsylvanian ("Undergrad tuition and fees to rise 4.5 percent next year," DP, 3/18/97). Momjian explained that the endowment's phenomenal success since the early '80s has been due to an "exceptional market," and to spend more would be risky because of the irregularities in the market. In other words, for over ten years the University has taken in a huge returns on its endowment but still has not been able to figure out how to recycle at least some of this, beyond the minimum, back into the system! Penn has had the ability to cut the expense of college by appropriately using its endowment to supplement tuition costs for many years but has chosen not to. Why would they? The student body and more specifically their parents have already bitten the bullet of higher tuition, so what is in it for the University? So what if tuition has risen annually from two to four times as fast as inflation -- we still pay! Who is Rodin kidding? As Stetson pointed out Penn is attracting even more students. Penn had a record year in applications and that they can basically charge what they want. Universities jack up prices because they can. They are able to do this because we take glee in our selectivity. We look at a higher tuition as a plus. In selecting an education it seems as though a bargain is not such a strong selling point anymore. So, are we being duped once again? Have we fallen for the trick of expense equals education? To some extent, the price we pay to receive an Ivy League diploma corresponds to the doors opened by having one. However, if an institution is strong enough in academics its diploma will always have value. A degree from Oxford is valued not because of its expense but what stands behind the school -- its high standards. I don't expect the University to give out money. We chose to come here with full knowledge of the enormous costs that attending this University would entail. It would be absurd to come back now and say we find it ridiculous how much a Penn diploma costs. Is a plaque from an Ivy League institution overrated? Probably. But, that's not the point. I'm sick and tired of our administrators singing one tune and playing another. Don't come now and say "you would if you could but you can't so you won't," because you can! If our president goes on record in a national weekly magazine saying she would cut tuition if possible then I am going to hold her to it. We already know it is possible so lets start hearing the details.