On the surface, President Richard Brodhead seems to have the right priorities at heart. Duke now has someone who is willing to stand up and recognize we have a problem that must be addressed. That problem is the current state of Duke's financial aid.
Because of our limited financial aid endowment, Duke is not able to offer the same level of assistance to students that our peer institutions can. Although we (supposedly) meet 100 percent of students' demonstrated need, we are still a long way from the most generous packages offered by Harvard and Princeton. Around 60 percent of Duke students(parents) can afford to pay $160,000 for an education, and the rest are often burdened with debt for years after graduation.
Thankfully, Brodhead has made increasing the financial aid endowment one of the main goals of his tenure-in June, a major fundraising initiative was announced, and approximately $100 million has been raised to date. Brodhead even netted the largest-ever single gift to Duke: $75 million from the Duke Endowment to bolster the financial aid endowment.
That endowment currently provides only 20 percent of Duke's annual $55-million financial aid budget, while the rest comes out of operating funds that are spent at Duke's discretion.
But one obvious question has been conveniently left out of the discussion surrounding the campaign: How much will this actually increase financial aid? Given the hundreds of millions of dollars being sought in the name of financial aid, one would hope the increase would be significant. The true answer, however, seems to be surprisingly little, if at all. Instead of being augmented, much of the money from the operating budget will merely be replaced.
"I want to prevent any future collision between two fundamental imperatives: our obligation to social openness and our obligation to academic excellence," said Brodhead in his annual address to the faculty, very clearly indicating his desire to take the burden for financial aid off of the operating budget. Executive Vice President Tallman Trask echoed similar intentions when the initiative was first announced.
The few specific figures that were provided also shed light on the situation:
While Trask emphasized that the figures were not final, he told The Chronicle in July that $350 to $450 million would boost the portion of the financial aid budget that is endowed to 50 percent. This assumes a total financial aid budget in a range roughly on par with our current total budget (not even considering almost certain increases in tuition over the multi-year campaign).
This also represents a significant decrease in support from the operating budget. If the University undertook this campaign while maintaining the current payout from the operating budget, it could significantly increase the amount of financial aid given to each student by substituting grant money for loans or work study.
Only time will tell the actual effect of the campaign, but every newly "available" dollar that is diverted from financial aid represents a betrayal of the donors who are underwriting it and of the students who are held up as the recipients of it.
Every dollar shifted away represents a missed opportunity to bolster one of the few areas in which Duke truly does need improvement.
But it seems that instead of financial aid, some new series of extraneous undertakings are likely to be the beneficiaries of this campaign. Financial aid is merely a selling point to free up operating money for something else-not to break down the barriers that make a Duke education cost-prohibitive to so many.
So, given that Brodhead considers financial aid as something "absolutely fundamental to this school-a fundamental obligation of the University," is it that much to ask that the $44 million that Duke can currently muster out of the $1.3 billion operating budget stay dedicated to financial aid? Should it even be increased? If we are to ask donors to support Duke financial aid, shouldn't we as an institution do the same through the operating budget?
Our commitment to financial aid is demonstrated by our willingness to spend money that could be used for other purposes on it.
I would very much like to see Brodhead, Trask or Provost Peter Lange make a clear commitment to unilaterally increasing the financial aid budget. I hope that they, like me, define the strength of our aid based on how much we can offer, not where it happens to come from.
Elliott Wolf is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Tuesday.
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