STAFF EDITORIAL: Clarify the fin. aid problem

Penn's puzzling statements on financial aid stand in the way of pursuing creative solutions to the problem. It is. But to do something about Penn's financial aid problems, the University must first specify the exact nature of the issue. On the one hand, administrators claim that Penn is able to provide need-based aid to everyone who requires it, in the amounts that they require. The problem, they say, is one of source: Aid is taken from Penn's operating budget to a far greater extent than our peer institutions, who are able to rely on their endowments to a far greater extent. But that position is not consistently maintained. Administrators routinely cite the lack of financial aid as a problem in recruiting minorities. Penn was unable to follow the lead of Harvard and Princeton in extending grants -- rather than loans, which must be paid back -- to the most underprivileged of students. And one doubts that Penn students would agree that current financial aid packages are always sufficient. Once the problem is articulated, Penn still faces the need to push for creative solutions. The University has raised $83 million toward a goal of $200 million in financial aid fundraising between 1996 and 2003. But Penn spent $55 million in financial aid for this year. Six percent came from the endowment and that percentage is likely to increase only moderately even if the current fundraising drive is entirely successful. The University needs to re-examine the very nature of financial aid fundraising. It has always been true that donors are reluctant to give unrestricted gifts -- there is little glory in giving when no building or classroom will bear your name. Scholarship funds have proven one effective means of addressing this problem -- donors essentially pay for a particular number of students to come to Penn and can be duly recognized by the fortunate students and the University. But Penn must find ways to recognize donors to the unrestricted financial aid pool as well. Relying on altruism is simply not enough. Whether by providing naming opportunities unconnected to the gift's actual purpose -- classrooms named after financial aid donors -- or through other means, the University must work with prevailing donor attitudes.