Kenyon College - CASE

comparing costs: endowment per
student (and Mandatory Charges)
really be great on the private institutions. You can raise tuition as
much as you want, but nowadays you’re raising tuition and you’re
compensating that raise with financial aid. There’s no net gain. The
model will have to change.”
Nugent anticipates change. “A part of me thinks the current
system is not sustainable,” she said. “The current financial aid
system implies a social contract, where the wealthy assume a greater
share of the cost. And I think the social contract has broken down in
recent years.”
The financial aid system must be streamlined and simplified,
Feldman said, starting with the Free Application for Federal Student
Aid form. Beyond that, he envisions a sort of college-education
Social Security program that begins on the front end. With a “public
investment” by taxpayers, the government would establish a savings
account for each child at birth, providing enough income for a basic
college education at age eighteen. “The point would be that you
would begin, from the earliest age, to change the entire expectations
of a family,” he said.
“The United States used to be the world leader in having an
educated work force. Quite a number of countries have surpassed
us. The rest of the world is
not stupid. They see that
the investment in education
has a payoff.”
The payoff can be
tallied in more than a
payday.
“I think we devote too
much attention to simply
dollars,” Nugent said. “The
ability to live a full life as
a participant in society, as
a person who can take a
delight in the arts and in
your cultural surroundings,
a person capable
of making judgments, a
person with confidence—I think those are undoubtedly components
of a good life. And, by and large, if you are ending your education at
seventeen, you are probably not well equipped to enjoy those good
things in your life.”
Ronald K. Griggs, vice president for library and information
services, finds the value of a Kenyon education in the classroom.
“In every class you’re going to be exposed to something new. There’s
not a dud in the bunch,” Griggs said. “That’s the richness of the
environment.”
What results is the “incredible confidence” that Griggs sees in the
eyes of graduating seniors. “They can pretty much tackle anything.”
Williams ....... $685,672 ($54,560)
Grinnell ....... $649,517 ($49,144)
Middlebury ... $286,991 ($53,420)
Carleton ...... $261,929 ($54,180)
Denison ........ $255,835 ($50,170)
Bates ........... $103,518 ($55,300)
Kenyon ......... $92,051 ($52,650)
Making Kenyon Affordable:
Financial Aid
How do students and families expect
to cope with the high cost of college?
Short of winning a lottery, the answer
is financial aid. It’s often the deciding
factor in college choice. Cheyenne
Cody Cardell ’15—a talented artist
and outstanding student from New
Mexico—chose Kenyon over Parsons
Paris School of Art and Design (in France) and six
other private schools because of Kenyon’s more
generous financial aid offer. “Parsons offered her a
great package, but it was not good enough,” said
Ede Cardell, Cheyenne’s mother.
Kenyon devoted 21.5 percent of its $102.9 million
operating budget in 2010-11 to financial aid.
About 60 percent of its students receive aid from
the College and/or outside sources. At a time when
federal and state support for higher education is
falling, more students are qualifying for more aid.
The average need-based grant per Kenyon student
has been steadily increasing for more than a decade—and
in 2009, in the wake of the September
2008 economic collapse, it took a leap of $4,000.
To meet increasing demand, Kenyon raised
nearly $60 million in new endowment for financial
aid during the recently completed campaign,
doubling its financial-aid endowment. Campaign
donors created sixty-seven new scholarship
funds. But the sum still fell $11 million short of the
campaign goal for endowed financial aid. “I was
shocked that we didn’t reach that goal,” said
Jennifer Delahunty, dean of admissions and
financial aid. “We’re struggling to keep our commitments
to students and families.”
Financial aid is the lifeblood of the College,
essential in attracting the best and brightest
students and ensuring a diverse student body
(Cheyenne’s biological father is Navajo). “Part of
our social contract is to provide access to students
of all backgrounds,” said Delahunty. “Without financial
aid, Kenyon would not be a very interesting
or educationally solid place.”
A financial aid package at Kenyon typically
includes a combination of grants, scholarships, oncampus
employment, and student-loan options
for families. About 33 percent of the 468 first-year
students admitted in the 2010-11 academic year
received need-based aid from Kenyon. The average
package totaled $36,562, including a $28,162
grant from the College that does not have to be
repaid. “If an economically disadvantaged student
gets admitted to Kenyon, our package is likely the