Last February when the Board of Trustees raised tuition, the University's news release did not mention, as it usually does, an increase in undergraduate financial aid. Omissions make me very curious.
Twenty-seven e-mails and 12 phone calls later-in other words, with very little cooperation from current occupants of the Allen Building-I can report that President Richard Brodhead speaks eloquently about the need for financial assistance but his actions are severely lacking.
Let's deal with merit scholarships and need-based aid first, and then athletic scholarships. We'll also get to Brodhead's Financial Aid Initiative.
When Brodhead arrived for the 2004-2005 academic year, he inherited a budget with $6.1 million for merit scholarships and $42.5 million for need-based grants. Total: $48.6 million.
Duke had 6,137 undergraduates at the time. If the aid were distributed evenly, the theoretical "average" student received $7,919.
In the current 2007-2008 year, the fourth of Brodhead's tenure, merit and need-based aid total $55 million. That number appeared deep in a summer-time news release and I asked the director of the Office of News and Communication to confirm it, which he did. Twice. That means there was no increase at all over the third Brodhead year-a devastating indictment.
No wonder other senior Duke officials distanced themselves from the number, contending as late as last week, implausibly, that the University could not yet forecast its spending for this academic year.
With the growth of the Pratt School of Engineering, there are now 6,738 undergraduates.
Do the math. Four years of Brodhead, and the "average" student's aid has increased a measly $244. Meanwhile, the anticipated cost of attending Duke leaped from $39,240 to $45,121, an increase of $5,881.
Jocks fared better. Athletic scholarships amounted to $10.5 million when Brodhead arrived. Extrapolating from precise figures for three earlier years, the current total is probably $13 million, up 25 percent over four years. More extrapolation: Merit scholarships increased only 7 percent and need-based aid 15 percent.
Many students may think the Financial Aid Initiative is helping them. No way.
The three-year fundraising effort, started precisely two years ago, is collecting pledges first, then cash. The money must sit in University coffers for a full year before Duke touches it, and then rules imposed by the Trustees dictate that any spending increase from endowment be trickled in over three years. Thus we are six years away from feeling the full benefit of the Initiative.
The Initiative seeks $300 million in new endowment for all University divisions, allocating $230 million for need-based undergraduate aid and nothing for merit scholarships.
There are signs of a battle royale within the Brodhead team over the adequacy of this effort. Recall the rare interview that Executive Vice President Tallman Trask gave The Chronicle six months before the Initiative was announced. Trask said as much as $450 million would be needed for undergraduates alone, double what development gurus saw as feasible.
For this column, Trask answered one e-mail cursorily, and ignored four others.
Even the low-ball goal was in trouble at the 18-month mark last summer, so the update going to Trustees this weekend will be crucial.
But don't throw up your hands. There's a way out of this.
First, with more students paying higher tuition and fees, Duke now collects $43 million more per year from undergraduates than it did when Brodhead arrived. Yet Duke devotes only $400,000 more for merit scholarships, $6.2 million for need-based aid and $2.5 million for athletics. Fix it.
Second, despite many stumbles (dare I mention lacrosse?), the Brodhead administration has invested Duke's money brilliantly and has earned vast sums beyond what was budgeted-in the president's first year, $428 million extra; in his second $626 million extra. Results for his third year are not yet public, but I would estimate $750 million to $1 billion.
That's a lot of slush! Undergraduates and their parents should be asking, loudly, why these riches are not channeled into relief from ever-soaring tuition.
And third, there is a lot of hidden money at Duke. Consider the enviable position of the pension system, over-funded by $423 million in the last report. The Trustees should restructure pensions, insuring all beneficiaries every penny while capturing the surplus. Alternatively, Duke should suspend all contributions of new money, freeing up tens of millions of dollars a year.
Recall Brodhead's words in a 2005 address to the faculty on need-based aid:
"This privilege [of higher education] was available in America on profoundly unequal terms; when quality education was open to some with relative ease but closed to others-closed to women at certain schools, closed to African Americans in many places-on grounds extraneous to ability or intelligence. During my adult lifetime, those injustices have been remedied in substantial measure.
"But it would be a poor sequel for less-visible economic discriminations to be allowed to stay in place when gender and racial ones have been abolished."
I can heartily endorse that priority. Now, as they say in the movies, show me the money.
These figures do not affect me. I attended Duke for seven years and my parents paid my tuition and fees in full. Total: $7,700.
Ed Rickards, Duke '63 and Law '66, has pursued careers in both corporate management and journalism. He was editor of The Chronicle and currently lives in New York, N.Y.
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