April 25th, 2008

A recap — with commentary — of Sexton’s tuition hike e-mail

By Alvin Chang

John Sexton sent out an e-mail memo today about NYU’s financial state.

These 1,600 word e-mail have a ton of “blah blah blah” in them. It’s just the nature of all these e-mails. So I’ve gone through and highlighted some portions of the e-mail I feel are important to students. And I’ve added some commentary—some very thoughtful, others just rants after finding out about this inevitable round of tuition hikes.

The 2007-08 academic year will be seen as an especially remarkable year.

The acquisition of Polytech, the engineering school, and the finalization of the Abu Dhabi campus is what we’re talking about here.

The NYU budget is sound.

Oh, is it? Let’s read on.

Although NYU is in a sound financial position, it will be a great challenge to produce the resources we need to sustain the drive for academic excellence that has brought us to this point, to enhance our financial aid program, and to meet our space needs.

OK, so the word “sound” might be ambiguous. It’s like saying America’s national security is sound because the mainland isn’t being attacked, but how can we feel comfortable knowing George Bush has his finger on the big red button? Fine, it’s not that bad. But still, our “drive for academic excellence” has made my budget not-so-sound.

Our resource challenges, I am certain, are well understood by everyone in the NYU community.

This is the largest misperception in the entire memo. It is not well understood by any means. I was the editor of WSN, and I don’t understand all their resource challenges “well.” This is largely because of the administration’s unwillingness to release its budget and tell us where our money is going. (I don’t want to know about every pen and stapler. But I do want to know that we are paying a few million dollars for this and that.)

This hard truth – that many of the colleges and universities against which we compete to attract faculty and students have endowment resources per student many times larger (5, 10, even 30 times larger than our own) with the attendant financial flexibility — is a constant in our budgetary deliberations, and it leads to more constrained choices for NYU.

OK, now I’m starting to get it. You want to compete with the Ivies, but you don’t have to money to do it. Therefore, we are going to finance this as you climb to the top.

Is this fair? You won’t even let me see the budget or have any say in what direction the school takes?

Are we paying for the future students to have a better education than we did? No wonder people don’t like to give back to the school after they graduate.

In the 2008 – 09 academic year, NYU will devote more than $150 million to undergraduate financial aid.

So about $6,000 per student.

NYU’s priority has been to direct the greatest effort at those with the greatest need, and that will continue to be our focus. We can and should be proud of the fact that we have a higher percentage of the nation’s neediest students than
many of our wealthier peers.

But not quite $6,000 — NYU plans to phase out merit-base scholarships and give money solely based on need.

I applaud the school’s efforts to help not-so-privileged students come to this school, but the middle class shouldn’t have to take out a few mortgages to sent their kids to NYU.

For fully-funded graduate students, there will be an increase of $1,000 in the minimum stipend for doctoral students (bringing the minimum stipend to $22,000
in academic year 2008-09) and $500 for masters students (bringing the minimum
stipend for them to $16,500).

So grad a nice little boost here. But I’m sure GSOC has something to gripe about it.

Each additional dollar of tuition cost is a tax on the resources of our students and their families.

If it’s a “tax,” then does that mean we are entitled to know where the money is going? I’d like to know how much we’re spending on these big projects, and exactly how much of money is going where.

Nevertheless, I’m glad he acknowledges the impact this has on our families.

Any initiative requiring financial resources to be achieved in the end will have an impact on tuition, because nearly two-thirds of our resources come from that source.

In other words, anything NYU wants to do will be done with our tuition. Let’s hope they slow down a bit…

For Academic Year 2008-2009, total undergraduate charges (tuition, fees, room and board) will increase by 5.7 percent; tuition alone will increase by 5.9
percent.

Finally, the big piece of info everyone was looking for. (See previous post)

Since becoming president of this great university, I have thought constantly about a basic question: how far into the leading ranks of higher education can a school go without the power of an enormous per-student endowment? Using entrepreneurship, established momentum, determination, boldness, our Greenwich Village location, and the ability to get the most out of every dollar we spend, how far might NYU go? For me, the answer is straightforward: as far as it
wishes.

No, Mr. President. How far might NYU go? For me, the answer is painful: as far as this school is willing to go to squeeze out more money from us.

Listen, I know we complain about money, but it’s not about the money. It’s about knowing that I’m not getting what I’m paying for. I’m paying for my education. I am not paying for the education of NYU’s class of 2031. However, that’s exactly how I feel.

Our motto, Perstare et Praestare – to persist and to excel – is not only a description of this community of scholars, but an exhortation.

There is no way to say “fork over 3Gs more” while coming off like the nice guy. So keep that in mind when you’re furious over this e-mail. A tuition hike, like Sexton said, is necessary for NYU.

But I think Mr. President owes us more of an explanation about the rising cost of education at NYU. It is rising faster than inflation, and financial aid isn’t about to help the middle class any more. (Right now, financial aid is being directed toward need-based scholarships—I’m OK with that to an extent, but the middle class should also be helped.)

NYU obviously has huge, whimsical plans. But I wish the school knew exactly the huge impact it has on its students when it asks them to finance the long-term plans to become a world-wide new Ivy school.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 12:56 pm and is filed under Life of Alvin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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