Tuition Intuition

How does one possibly offset the high cost of tuition to top-tiered academic institutions these days? After conducting a brief analysis of the top 25 ranked academic institutions based on U.S. News and World Report, the average tuition for one year is approximately $34,960. This is a remarkable sum of money to expend on education for a financially well-to-do family, but for a family who is impoverished, a sum of this magnitude is incomprehensible.

Education is the human right to derive knowledge and consume information about one's livable Universe. Ideally, it should be free to all of mankind. However, the rates at which academic institutions are raising their tuition is unfortunately keeping some individuals out of the academic mix. The cost of education has reached a point where it has begun to deny the inherent right of education to those who do not have the financial means.

In order to alleviate the financial burden placed on individuals attending academic institutions, I have proposed a strategy that may be worthwhile if explored further.

The idea that I propose is rooted in a University's Development Department. In University lingo, Development is a sophisticated word meaning "to raise funds from alumni and all individuals associated with the institution." University's have gotten this process down to a science, and that makes good sense seeming though a University is an academic institution that seeks to unveil the hidden mystery of the human condition.

Development departments usually structure their attacks by focusing their efforts on donors who are willing to give at various amounts. There are certain individuals who give millions of dollars away, likely attributing their present success to the foundation provided to them at their University. Other individuals give hundreds of thousands of dollars probably for very similar reasons. But then there are the smaller donors. The ones who typically give less than one thousand dollars a year. And it is these donors who perplex me.

I have to wonder, why is it that these people, the vast majority of the alumni of any academic institution, feel compelled to give small sums of money that on a personal level make little to no dent at all to the University's bottom line?

• First, I could consider that these individuals have a strong tie to the academic institution. Most top-tiered academic institutions are four year engagements, and it makes reasonable sense to me that any institution that one devotes his or her life to for four years would seemingly harbor some sort of connection. Sure, this is a reasonable reason for giving a small donation.

• Second, could it be that the individual was particularly connected to their field of study, and it is not in fact the anonymous institution that motivates these individuals to give their small donations, but rather the faint recollections of classmates, professors, lectures, and events that are truly at the core of the giving? I think this is highly likely as well.

• Third, perhaps the individual does not even care or think of their academic institution, but just out of being asked for a donation they are willing to part ways with even a small amount of money, because they have more than enough to survive on? I think that if people don't have any specific hatred towards the institution based on something "it" did to them "personally", it is quite likely for a donor to give even a small amount of money if they recognize that they can do without it.

• Fourth, maybe it is the donors understanding that the money that they give, although a small amount, will be utilized together in a pool of donor money in order to help the academic institution realize its greater goals.

• Finally, perhaps the means through which the donor was asked for a donation to the institution plays the largest role in their willingness to give. It is a challenge to get donations out of donors at these small levels of contribution. This makes sense intuitively. If you are a large donor, it is likely that your large donation will take up a larger portion of your thoughts. If you are a small donor, it is likely that your small donation will take up only a small portion of your thoughts (I like the symmetry here).

Donors at these small levels of contribution are typically found either through phone or mail solicitations. Obviously, with the help of the Internet, donors could instinctively go to the donation website, but it is unlikely that they will do so without being prodded. People generally don't feel the need to do something unless being specifically asked to do so or unless they are highly intrinsically motivated for some reason or another.

The final method that I suggested that may drive a donor's motivation is particularly compelling to me. For the past couple months I have worked for a University's Development Department, and my job entails calling and soliciting donations from these smaller donors.

I have been doing this work for long enough that I am already considered a veteran. There is hardly anyone on the calling floor who has been there longer than myself. In my time, I have seen people come and go; the turnover rate is incredible. But, what I have also recognized, is that there are people who are remarkably good at the job and those who just cannot get it right.

Over a short period in time, it is quite difficult to assess the quality of a caller, but over the longer term there is a marked difference in those people who either work very hard at improving their solicitation technique or just have a knack for the job. Some people are so skilled that they can get the smallest amount of money out of an individual connected to the institution even after they spend a couple minutes berating it. I propose that this isn't luck, but rather a reflection of the individual's ability to solicit money for a cause.

With that being said, I consider my own case again. For the past couple of months I have worked around 250 hours doing this sort of work for my academic institution. For my time, I am compensated at around $9.25 an hour which is a tremendous sum of money for a college student, and I am grateful that I was able to secure this job and receive the compensation I do. Doing a couple simple calculations, I've netted around $2,200 for my time after taxes.

However, in the exact same stretch of time, I have brought in around $20,000 for the academic institution for which I have called. I feel proud of this achievement and I'm glad that the money that I have raised is going to a worthy institution that I do in fact feel quite connected to.

Yet, in just a few months from now I will need to repay the massive student loans that I took out in order to finance my education here. The sum I will have to pay back is daunting and will take a calculated 15 years minimum (that is roughly 68% of my current age to this point).

I think that academic institutions ought to consider expanding their Development Department to include individual financing. This can be done in one of two ways as I see it.

• The first way would be to allow students to call alumni (as they do already), but enable the student to raise money on their own behalf to offset the high cost of tuition. The call would be very similar, but the donor would know exactly who the donation is going to and for what purpose, exactly. That is a step up in transparency from the current method.

• The second way would be for students to work together collectively to create a tuition endowment of sorts. This could be structured for each individual academic institution or perhaps institutions could even work together in order to enhance the size of their endowment. The interest paid on this endowment would go towards assisting students with tuition. As the endowment grows, and it will do so exponentially (due to compounded interest), tuition will find itself either leveling off or even decreasing.

Individual's expressing concern about this idea will posit that if money goes toward this tuition endowment or towards an individual needing tuition assistance, then the University loses out on that potential money which deteriorates the greater good that the University provides (research, art, etc.). While this is a completely fair assessment, I would contend that small donors could likely match the donations they give without any significant impact to their way of life.

Therefore, I believe it is just a question of effective reasoning and solicitation on behalf of the student making the call (a primary reason why I think small donors give over the long term). So long as the message is framed correctly, individuals will act. It is our nature.