News
hotostorv
Students rush Phelps at lunch
Housing Now
Homecoming highlights weekend
--page 2
Hope students march in D.C.
-pages 6 & 9
Hope College
-pages 10, 11 & 12
-a
Bulk Ran UJLPM^p
PAID
I October
11, 1 9 8 9
h
e
a n c h o r Rising toward the new decade
Hope involved in by Carrie Maples news editor Hope College has recently been asked by the United States Justice Department to hand over its financial records from the last five years. The Justice Department will use the records to determine whether or not Hope College has been involved in tutition price-fixing with other Great L a k e s Colleges A s s o c i a t i o n schools i GLCA)
Currently, the Justice Department refuses to comment on the suit other than to say that it is totally s e p a r a t e from their investigation. More r e c e n t l y , all of the members of the GLCA and the Overlap Group, a consortium of elite northeastern schools, have been drawn into the investigation. bringing the total of schools involved to 55. The schools have been asked to turn over to the Justice Department all financial
PtraM f m
HoDnd, MI
Volume 102, Number 5
tuition-fixing investigation schools a r e being investigated. They have also declined to say whether or not other consortia would be pulled into the investigation Jon W Fuller, former president of the GLCA, told the "Chronicle of Higher Education" that tuition rates of the 12 GLCA schools vary by as much as $5,600 < Hope's tuition is $8,580 while Oberlin's is $14,220). The schools in the Overlap Group, however, only varied their tuition by $1,230
(Smith College's tuition is $13,380 while Wesleyan University's is $14,610). Fuller also said the GLCA schools compete mainly with public schools for their students. This creates an incentive to keep costs low On this point Fuller said, "Consultation among colleges serves to keep costs down. Ironically, the Justice Department's action m a y remove one of our most useful tools for keeping costs down "
On the opposite side of the argument, Chester C. Finn, J r . , former Assistant Secretary of Education, was very critical of the way colleges raise tuition. He told the "Chronicle for Higher Education" colleges certainly shouldn't be surprised at the inquiry. "For the last 10 years, they should have been behaving differently," he stated. "After a long period of misbehavior, people find
continued on page 2
T h e a n n u a l m e e t i n g s m a k e it m o r e s u s p i c i o u s a n d m a k e it m o r e l i k e l y f o r t h e r e t o b e a proDlem.' Hope a d m i n i s t r a t i o n maint a i n s t h a t Hope " a c t s independently" in raising and set ting tutition In early August the Federal Justice Department began an investigation of the financial prac tices of 20 prominent eastern col leges and universities. Included in the investigation are such prestigious schools as Harvard. D a r t m o u t h . M l , Hoi y o k e . Princeton and Yale The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether or not antitrust laws were violated in setting tuition and financial aid packages. In m i d - S e p t e m b e r R o g e r Kingsepp, a student at Wesleyan University, filed a suit against Wesleyan and 11 other private schools. Kingsepp is seeking d a m a g e s on behalf of the 1,000 students hurt in an alleged tuition price-fixing scheme. The suit is based on a Wesleyan m e m o confirming that the school was a w a r e of the tuition rates at the other schools for the 1988-89 school year before they were "official." Kingsepp claimed the schools used this knowledge to decide which students would attend which schools and what type of financial aid they would receive.
records from the past five years. The original due date was October 10 but the schools have since been given an extension The GLCA investigation is believed to have been triggered by a comment made to the 'Washington F5ost" by David Breneman, former president of Kalamazoo College Breneman said while he was president at Kalamazoo, he became concerned about the informal talks held between the institutions and withdrew. He went on to say, "I thought there was some kind of problem the colleges could get in, but there was absolutely no sympathy for my point of view. It was hooted down as silly.'' B r e n e m a n is c u r r e n t l y a Brookings Institute scholar Antitrust lawyers are now arguing even if there is no official agreement to exchange information, institutes might be in violation of the antitrust laws. David Meyer, a Washington, D C., antitrust lawyer, told the "Washington Post," "The annual m e e t i n g s m a k e it m o r e suspicious and make it more likely for there to be a problem." The Justice Department has so far refused to say why the GLCA
:V
1 The Arcadian fraternity showed their school spirit during last Saturday's Komecoming parade. The parade, which wound around campus before going to Holland Municipal Stadium, featured many greek floats, the Homecoming Court and the Holland Trolley. The Arcadian float, actually a spray-painted old car, featured the theme "Little Boy Blue." (Photo by Scott Kaukonen)