A week after the cover story in Time magazine — written by Erik Larson, C’76 — excoriated the University and other elite schools for their high tuition rates, the board of trustees approved a 4.5 percent increase in total charges.
Tuition, fees, room, and board will rise from $28,096 to $29,354 for the 1997-98 year.
Undergraduate tuition and fees will increase 5.3 percent, from $21,130 to $22,250the smallest rate of increase in twenty-nine yearswhile
graduate tuition and fees will also go up 5.3 percent, from $21,992 to
$23,158. (See p. 8 for President Judith Rodin’s thoughts on the cost of
higher education.)
In the Time article, Larson criticized the “Chivas Regal effect” among the top-ranked schools that “equated price with quality” and led to tuition hikes that “consistently outstripped inflation”; he had especially strong words for Ivy League colleges who did a “tuition tango” to keep their prices comparable despite different costs and endowments.