Editor's note: This is the first article in a two-part series. The second article will appear in tomorrow's paper.
Tufts' new Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) has received an enthusiastic response from the Tufts community, despite some concerns about its priorities.
The Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service started the program, the first of its kind that affects undergraduate as well as graduate students, using money from the $100 million microfinance fund given in 2005 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (LA '88) and his wife Pamela (LA '89).
Specifically, the program allots $500,000 to be used to help students pursuing non-profit or government-service careers.
"What it does, really, is to provide some increased freedom of choice for graduates who want to take lower-paying public service jobs," Tisch College Dean Robert Hollister said.
Some, however, have expressed concern that the program is unfair because it only applies to students entering certain careers.
Associate Chemistry Professor Samuel Kounaves said that limiting the aid to those working at nonprofit or government service jobs can cause others to feel like "second-class" graduates. He also cited examples of other disciplines which he believes are upholding an equal level of "active citizenship and public service."
"Students in the sciences ... can accumulate even more debt ... and they're often doing stuff that's just as important ... Why [help] the person working [at a] nonprofit over the person who is curing cancer?," he said.
According to Hollister, however, LRAP is just an attempt to address the typically drastic inequalities between not-for-profit and for-profit salaries.
"It's a way of making some impact on ... what many people would argue is an unfairness in the dramatic differences in salaries between high-paying private sector jobs and lower-paying nonprofit or government service jobs," he said. "The whole motivation behind the program is to increase fairness in that respect and to level the playing field a bit."
According to Hollister, an alumnus who graduates from law school could potentially earn a starting salary of around $160,000 per year. On the other hand, a student graduating with a master's in teaching who wants to teach at an elementary school might start somewhere between $40,000 and $45,000.
"What the LRAP does is to make it more possible for people who want to make that second choice to do so," he said.
President Lawrence Bacow said that plans for the distribution of loan forgiveness follow the current policy of general financial aid.
"One could make an argument for lowering tuition for all instead of providing financial aid to just the needy. We do the latter because the university has a social mission to make higher education accessible to all," Bacow said in an e-mail. "Similarly, we believe the university has a social mission to encourage people to enter public service [jobs]."
According to Hollister, the money will be used most efficiently by making a larger impact on a smaller group of students than by giving financial aid to more students.
"The total budget is quite small in comparison to the much larger amounts that are invested by Tufts each year in both undergrad and grad students' financial aid," he said. "It would have a greater impact on the career choices ... of students than if we were to purely use that same amount of money to increase financial aid across the board."
Still, Kounaves said that terms such as "public service" and "active citizenship" are ambiguous.
"I just think we need to have a conversation about some of these terms," Kounaves said. "It's a complicated issue."
Hollister said that the program's goals are based primarily on financial criteria rather than the merit of one job over another.
"What this particular program is seeking to address is the real obstacles that many alums face [in trying to] to take or to stay in lower-paid jobs," he said.
Director of Career Services Jean Papalia confirmed the significance of debt and financial concerns in the minds of Tufts students nearing graduation.
"We don't have any real hard data of how this affects job choice, but anecdotally, the awareness of college debt is a very real factor in the career decision-making process for today's students," she said in an e-mail. "Consequently, a sincere interest to 'make a difference' or 'give back' may become secondary to compensation."
Tufts alum Tara Herlocher (LA '85), currently the director of education and training for the Peer Advanced Competency Training (PACT) Project at Harlem Hospital, believes the aid could really make a difference in the career choices of graduates who are concerned about income.
"I don't think it would have influenced me either way, but I think most people, it could have an influence on," she said. "Some people are on the fence, but they're usually on the fence about the money."
Herlocher said that today more than ever it seems as if public service positions are often not only underpaid, but undervalued.
"I think it would be really great if society in general valued [public service] more, which I think this kind of initiative can help promote," she said.
Jessica Bruso (LA '97, N '03) said that receiving loan assistance after graduation would have allowed her to get the experience she needed by accepting an unpaid internship, which would have facilitated her search for a well-paying nonprofit job.
Bruso, who is still paying off her grad school loans, said she will look into the program once it is launched.
"I think it is a great idea," she said. "I wish it had been available when I graduated."
