Karen and Dan Pritzker pledged $5 million in 2002 to promote diversity at Tufts. When their pledge was matched by other Tufts donors, they made a second pledge of $5 million, bringing the Pritzker Challenge Gift to a total of $15 million.
While the Pritzker donation does not affect the admissions process, it does increase the availability of financial aid for those admitted students who need it, and it will also increase the ratio of grants to loans.
As Karen Pritzker put it in an e-mail to the Daily, "it seems outrageous that it should cost $160,000 to provide one over-privileged child of the elite with a bachelor's degree."
This statement is true. It should not cost $160, 000 to earn a bachelor's degree - and in reality, it need not. Much of the cost of Tufts and other elite schools comes from the world-class facilities, constant renovations and never-ending striving for higher rankings.
Indeed, Tufts is on a constant quest to improve itself, and all of us who are lucky enough to be here benefit from these improvements.
But these changes are not free. As Tufts becomes increasingly high-tech, cutting-edge and "pretty," it also becomes increasingly expensive.
These changes may make life at Tufts easier and more comfortable, but they may also prevent Tufts from experiencing the enormous gains of a student body that is genuinely socioeconomically diverse.
More importantly, they serve to deny numerous qualified students the opportunity to study here. The quest for a bigger and materially-better Tufts has its benefits, but we should all carefully consider its costs.
And while Tufts is academically competitive with many of the country's best universities, it lags far behind in terms of financial aid availability. Tufts cannot yet conduct entirely need-blind admissions. The cost of attending proves prohibitive for many admitted students and deters countless others from even applying in the first place. And many students who do attend Tufts graduate with staggering student loans, which can significantly limit their future options.
Karen and Dan Pritzker's gift is as smart as it is generous. In light of the alarming 2004 report on Tufts' low retention rates of minority faculty members, the administration has heightened its efforts to attract and retain a diverse faculty.
Notably, it has resolved to create a Department of Institutional Diversity, with a Director of Institutional Diversity as its head. These are laudable steps toward making Tufts a more welcoming place for a diverse faculty.
But the smartest thing Tufts could do to increase diversity among the student body would be to increase financial aid - through gifts like the Pritzkers', and through its own choices.
Because minorities are disproportionately socioeconomically disadvantaged, impossibly high tuition costs excessively impact minorities. Increased financial aid availability - even more than affirmative action or minority outreach programs, which tend not to take socioeconomic status into account - would truly level the playing field for prospective Tufts students.
Furthermore, need-blind admissions would ensure that Tufts gain the benefits of all kinds of diversity - racial, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic. This is the kind of renovation that Tufts needs most of all.
