<p>Eugene</a> Lang '38 Donates Largest Gift Ever to Swarthmore :: News & Events :: Swarthmore College</p>
<p>This could well be the start of the new capital campaign.</p>
<p>An additional $50 million commitment from Eugene Lang is pretty astonishing. At last report, he had already given $30 million to the College over the years – as can be seen from the number of buildings and centers with the Lang name.</p>
<p>I would guess this will put some pressure on Jerome Kohlberg to kick a little something more into the kitty, as well.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if Lang were a supporter of the new institute for the liberal arts. I think it’s great that Swarthmore is taking a leadership role in this.</p>
<p>Everyone is talking about the college loan bubble–which Swarthmore has helped to reduce through its enlightened student loan practices–but I think a much more dramatic impact would be provided by Swarthmore announcing a cut in tuition for all students as a result of this grant. That would put pressure on other schools with large endowments, along with cuts in expenses. Building more and more facilities drives the “college arms race”, and in honor of the Quaker value of simplicity, real leadership by Swarthmore’s president would be to announce that “less is more”. Colleges like Swarthmore already outpace the vast majority of liberal arts colleges in the comforts and bright shiny objects it offers to prospective students. Now is the time to move back to the ideal of the simple, robust seminar as the prototypical learning vehicle and to have modest facility upgrades, largely slanted toward greening the campus, sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint. Who’s with me on this concept?</p>
<p>From what I understand, much of this donation is going to go into strengthening the Engineering department, which would be huge for the school. I don’t think it will be used as morganhill suggested. It’s also not up to the president to decide where the money goes. I would say almost all of the decision is Lang’s.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) in 2014, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this gift is indeed intended to kick off the public phase of the capital campaign.</p>
<p>morganhill:</p>
<p>The reason Swarthmore won’t cut tuition is that it benefits the wealthiest students the most. It’s a discount for students who can afford to pay full fare. For example, do Eugene Lang’s grandchildren really need a cut in tuition when they attend Swarthmore? It’s the same reason that merit aid discounting favors wealthy students.</p>
<p>Given their druthers, Swarthmore would rather have the full-fare sticker price be as high as possible and then offer more significant need-based aid discounts to reduce the price for low and middle income students. They will continue to increase the sticker price as much as competitive market pressure will allow.</p>
<p>We can debate whether that’s the best approach, but it is without question the explicit pricing strategy Swarthmore embraces. They’ve openly talked about it in the past, making pricing increasingly progressive.</p>
<p>As far as strengthening the Engineering Dept., I am guessing that Swarthmore will build “phase II” of the new science center with a new building or buildings for the Engineering Deptarment and probably the Biology department. </p>
<p>The campus master plan will answer a lot of those questions.</p>
<p>Actually, you are both right; there is a self-perpetuating loop system in place in which colleges are forced to indulge in a kind of affirmative action for rich people in order to pay for the kinds of surroundings today’s rich have become accustomed to having. i emphsize <em>today’s</em> rich because the days of rising at daybreak for chapel; and a cold shower are over.</p>
<p>We see this in a more mundane form even with schools that hve the best of intentions; at Grinnell, where it is said, 90% of the student body receives fin/aid, there is widespread acknowledgemnt that they will have to start beating the bushes for more richer applicants in order to pay the bills:<br>
[Committee</a> presents options for financial aid changes; partial elimination of need-blind is 1 of 3 options | Scarlet & Black](<a href=“http://www.thesandb.com/news/committee-presents-options-for-financial-aid-changes-partial-elimination-of-need-blind-is-1-of-3-options.html]Committee”>http://www.thesandb.com/news/committee-presents-options-for-financial-aid-changes-partial-elimination-of-need-blind-is-1-of-3-options.html)</p>
<p>Another problem with the “soak the rich” strategy that Wesleyan and Swarthmore practice is that, even though they have vastly different resources (Wesleyan is a small-sized university with about a tenth the endowment per student of Swarthmore, a small liberal arts college) they are not that far apart in terms of how they price the middle-class out of the equation. In this CC forum thread collegehelp posts several spreadsheets showing how each rewards different income-groups in terms of aid. Both schools are near the bottom of their elite peers when it comes to families in the crucial $75-110 thousand range:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1367474-best-buy-schools-wealthier-families.html?highlight=best[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1367474-best-buy-schools-wealthier-families.html?highlight=best</a></p>
<p>*for richer applicants…</p>