This petition is part of our Western Political Theory class here at St. John's. We would like you to sign this not only because it is part of our grade...we would actually like this to come into fruition. We based the idea for this project on Harvard University's recent tuition plan, the link will follow. Please read this and sign it if you agree that tuition for a college education is becoming too expensive. Thank you all!

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-finaid.htm

Lowering the Financial Burden for College Students
Universities across the United States are starting to develop new financial aid plans in order to lower the financial burden on students. The objective is to make schools more affordable to middle and lower income students. These universities include elite universities such as Harvard and Yale. As is well known, the price of education has been increasing and it is becoming less affordable for middle to low income families to attend a university. These plans will provide the incentive for people to pursue a higher education. This will be done by providing “generous new financial initiatives from Yale, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and some other elite schools [which] have drawn renewed attention to the plight of families struggling to afford college” (Block, 2008).
Harvard University is the first school to develop a plan to assist with the financial challenges of students. The plan is that if a family makes under $60,000 per year they are not expected to pay for tuition at Harvard. If a family earns between $60,000 and $180,000 per year the student will have to pay 10 percent or less of the parents income, and if a student’s family earns over $180,000 per year then the rates will vary. The students are also not required to take out loans, replacing the loan amounts with grants (Harvard, 2008). This plan has been the most concise and logical plan introduced. Other plans included the one by the University of Pennsylvania which has eliminated student loans “from financial aid packages offered to undergraduate students with family incomes under $100,000” (Dev, 2008). Yale has also proposed a plan which has expanded financial aid for middle- and upper-middle-income families” (Block, 2008). Both Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have taken steps to increase the financial aid package for students whose families are lower and middle class, but none have been as specific as the Harvard plan has been.
The Harvard plan, the Yale plan, and the University of Pennsylvania’s plan have positive and negative sides to them. The negatives include the fact that it will be more difficult for students to attend these Ivy League universities because of the increased competition due to the fact that there will be more applications and the schools will accept the same amount of people. This past year, Harvard has “received a record 22,955 applications for a spot in a class of 2011 and accepted only 2,058 [students] or 9 percent” (Herbst-Bayliss, 2007). This same concept applies to Yale where “only a fraction of extraordinary students manage to gain admission” (Block, 2008). Other negatives include raising Harvard’s financial aid budget from $98 million to $120 million (Harvard, 2008). As the universities give more financial aid to the students they will spend more money and the amount of money earned by the schools will decrease.
Positives of these plans include lower income families getting a better chance of accessing a top rate education. If a student does not have to pay for attending a school such as Harvard, then elite universities become much more accessible. This also stops the increase in the prices of college tuition which has been increasing almost every year. Many universities raise the price of tuition after every year and this will most end this practice at Harvard. Another positive attribute would be that this would make the top universities more diverse because of the much lower cost of tuition. Now a lower class minority student has a better chance of attending a top school.
In the end, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The price of tuition has been becoming increasingly unaffordable for many. Universities have to provide some sort of alternative to the high cost of college because if the price keeps increasing then the ability for future generations to attend college will decrease. These plans also provide incentives to students to apply to an Ivy League school such as Harvard or Yale. If an applicant has high grades but is in a low income family this person usually attends the first college that will provide them with the best deal, which is usually not an Ivy League school. If that low income student can now attend an Ivy League school for free it increases their chances of providing themselves with a better life. Even though these colleges will be receiving less money and spending more there are still ways of earning money such as fundraisers and sales. In addition, the schools putting together these plans have endowments in the billions, which means that they can afford to decrease tuition and spend more money on high-achieving students. Overall this plan will benefit future generations of students and make the United States a more educated country because students in low and middle income families have the opportunity to receive a better and more affordable education.

Works Cited
Block, Sandra. "Private colleges try to stay affordable." The USA Today 04 Feb 2008 <http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2008-02-04-private-college- tuition_N.htm?POE=click-refer>.

Dev, Priyanka. "University unveils financial aid plan." The Daily Pennsylvanian 01 Jan 2008 Pages 1-2. <http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&uStory_id =5a223497-7d3c- 4a40-aebd-6ef5bde09b6a>.

"Harvard announces sweeping middle-income initiative." Harvard University Gazette Online 10 Dec 2007 <http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/12.13/99-finaid.html>.

Herbst-Bayliss, Svea. "Harvard overhauls financial aid to cut tuition costs." Reuters News Corp 10 Dec 2007 <http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1042997120071210>.

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