VOLUME 106, ISSUE NO. 15 | STUDENT-RUN SINCE 1916 | RICETHRESHER.ORG | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022
Rice named as one of 16 schools in financial aid lawsuit
Senior Spotlight: Alfonso Pelaez Rovalo explores what it means to be unique MICHELLE MIAO
THRESHER STAFF
PHOTO COURTESY ALFONSO PELAEZ ROVALO
BEN BAKER-KATZ
ANDREA GOMEZ / THRESHER
MANAGING EDITOR
Rice is one of 16 universities alleged to have broken federal antitrust laws by violating the terms of an exemption which allowed universities to use a shared method of calculating applicants’ financial needs. The plaintiffs allege that this shared method resulted in price-fixing and unfairly limited aid to students, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday. The complaint centers around the “568 Presidents Group,” a group of universities that developed a “Consensus Methodology” designed as “a set of common standards for determining the family’s ability to pay for college.” Members of the group implement the agreed-upon formula each year to maintain a standard level of aid across admissions offers. This method allows universities to avoid financial aid bidding wars over low-income applicants who apply for financial aid, but, according to the lawsuit, increases the net cost of attendance for some students who might benefit from that bidding. This process is legal under federal law. Section 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Act, after which the group is named, provides an antitrust exemption allowing universities to collaborate on their financial aid formulas. The exemption is only applicable if the schools agree not to consider an applicant’s financial needs when deciding admission. The complaint asserts that 16 members and former members of the
568 Group violated this exemption. Of the schools named, the complaint states “at least” nine schools failed to conduct need-blind admissions processes by “maintaining admissions systems that favor the children of wealthy past or potential future donors.” Additionally, a subset of these nine schools were alleged to have given preference to those who will not need financial aid when deciding which applicants to admit from the waitlist. Rice was not named as one of these nine schools. According to the suit, the other seven schools, including Rice, “may or may not have adhered to need-blind admissions policies,” but did conspire to reduce financial aid and increase the net price of attendance. The complaint also states that these seven schools “knew or should have known that the other nine defendants were not following need-blind admissions policies.” Rice declined to comment on the pending litigation. While the complaint cites specific instances of admission officials from multiple schools acknowledging that applicants’ financial status was consulted during the admissions process, it mentions no such incident at Rice. The only substantive references to Rice in the complaint are to note that the undergraduate population is “generally wealthy and privileged,”
and the timing of Rice’s involvement in the 568 Group. Rice joined the group in 1998 and implemented the Consensus Methodology in 2003. They withdrew from the group in 2009 before joining again in 2017 and have remained a member since then. This lawsuit comes on the heels of Rice announcing a variety of financial aid programs, including The Rice Investment and the recent expansion of its loan-free financial aid offerings. Undergraduate students who enrolled in and received needbased financial aid from any of the institutions during their years as a member of the 568 Group are eligible to sign on to the suit. According to the complaint, the number of eligible students is more than 170,000. The suit seeks damages and a permanent end to the “defendants’ conspiratorial conduct” in an effort to “prevent future students from suffering the injury the ongoing conspiracy has inflicted.” Aside from Rice, the other 15 schools named are Brown University, California Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Yale University.
From watching his mother paint and sculpt to aspiring to become a National Geographic photographer since childhood, Alfonso Pelaez Rovalo has always seen art as an integral part of his life. Rovalo entered college majoring in architecture and later double majored in studio art after being inspired by his fellow classmates to explore art at Rice. Art in Rovalo’s life has a solid foundation, but as of yet, no definite ending. As a devoted student to the arts, Rovalo, a Lovett College senior, has explored a variety of artistic mediums. “I like a bit of everything,” Rovalo said. “I started drawing and painting in high school, but because of Rice I’m focusing on photography.” While first starting out with photography, he primarily created selfportraits after seeing a video about Rembrandt, a famous artist known for his self-portraits. He then tried other mediums related to photography such as cyanotypes, a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. “Cyanotypes are very fun. They are super easy to do and super craftsy,” Rovalo said. “I’ve discovered a lot of artists that are using it today. I think cyanotypes and other processes of printmaking are very versatile.” To Rovalo, the pandemic significantly transformed his approach to art by making it much harder to work in a studio on campus for a long period of time. This forced him to find other ways to express himself through art, one of those ways being “DIY” or do-it-yourself projects. “Another thing that has affected the way we make art is the pandemic because you have to make art from home,” Rovalo said. “I don’t always have a studio, so DIY processes are life-savers because not having the space to do things or access to limited materials forces you to do this. With the pandemic … basically all of my art classes have been from home, so I had to learn how to do a lot of processes from home.” It was around when the pandemic started that Rovalo really began to dive into photography, first through selfportraiture and later on through street photography. “Once the pandemic struck, I got a camera and started to go on daily walks almost every single day,” Rovalo said. “I would take long walks, two to four hours just to take pictures, since I wanted to be a street photographer.”
SEE SENIOR SPOTLIGHT PAGE 8