The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, August 28, 1987 Page: 2 of 20
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2 Friday, August 28. 1987 THRESHER Opinion
The tuition crisis
In our country, where all men and women are supposedly born equal,
it should follow that all have equal opportunities for success. Quality
higher education, long a gateway to success, should, then, be equally
available to those who want to pursue it.
It's no secret that some schools provide better education than others;
a student ought to be able to select a school without the restriction of
not being able to afford it. As American education grows elitist,
American society will grow elitist as well.
In reality, higher education is growing more and more elitist. For the
seventh straight year, increases in college tuition have exceeded the
inflation rate. It now costs S12,000 for room, board, tuition, and fees at
the average private college, and those costs at some colleges are nearly
518,000.
Quite clearly, not all prospective students can afford those hefty
charges. Fortunately, financial aid programs at most top colleges and
universities are aimed at helping students pay. Some programs, like
Rice's, even meet a student's full need, as calculated by a formula.
Federal student aid, administered through colleges and banks, is a
large part of financial aid programs. Guaranteed loans, grants, and
work-study programs are the life blood of most university financial aid
programs.
But this summer Secretary of Education William J. Bennett repeat-
edly criticized these programs as he defended the Reagan
administration's budget, which contained another of a long string of
administration proposals to cut student aid. Federal aid, he holds, is
what drives up college costs.
Bennett's arguments have a certain common sense appeal. If col-
leges know students have this government money available, then won't
they feel able to raise their costs that much more? If less government
money were available, Bennett says, colleges would not jack up their
costs.
His argument is incorrect for two reasons. First, the timing is wrong.
Student aid programs increased by huge amounts in the mid-70's while
tuition prices rose quite slowly. 11 is in the 1980' s that college costs have
skyrocketed—when government aid programs have been on the de-
cline.
Secondly, there is evidence that a decline in government aid actually
raises college costs, since almost all colleges attempt to meet a
student's financial need anyway. When the federal money is removed
from a student's aid, the college replaces the funds from its own coffers
and raises tuition in order to make up the lost dollars from other
students. In a survey by the American Council on Education, 71
percent of private school administrators said their tuition increases for
1988-89 arc due to increased student aid expenditures.
Immediate victims are the middle-class, students who do notqualify
for significant aid, but can't afford the runaway tuitions. Also endan-
gered are poorer students who can't afford college without federal aid.
At Rice, we are fortunate to have relatively low tuition and a proven
financial aid program. The fact that 70 percent of students here receive
aid shows the program works.
But last spring, however, the financial aid office indicated that 200-
250 Rice students who qualified for Guaranteed Student Loans last
year would not receive them this year, because of cuts in that program.
"Some students may not be able to return," said Financial Aid Director
David Hunt at the time.
Surely some students didn't. The federal government needs to be
leading the way to solid, responsible, and lasting aid programs—not
avoiding them.
Editorial policy
When an unsigned editorial appears in this column, it represents the
view of the Thresher's editorial board, which is composed of the top
Thresher editors. A signed editorial in this space, however, is the sole
opinion of its writer or writers, and does not necessarily represent views
of the board or the editor.
Similarly, columns that appear on the opinion pages expound the
views of the author; the opinion pages are meant to carry diverse
opinions which are not necessarily endorsed by the Thresher staff
unless such endorsement is explicitly stated.
Letters to the editor are welcome. Such letters will be printed, as
space is available, in the "Threshing it out" section of the opinion pages.
Letters must be legible, signed, and dated; they should include the
author's name and his or her position or affiliation with Rice (e.g.
Jennifer Jones, Baker '88; George Rupp, Rice University President). If
requested, we will withold a name for publication, but the editor must
have the writer's name or else the letter will be considered misclass for
the backpage.
Letter writers should also include their phone number for our
reference. Letters may be edited for length, clarity, and grammar. They
should be addressed to the editor of the Rice Thresher, Box 1892,
Houston, TX 77251, or delivered directly to the Thresher office on the
second floor of the Ley Student Center.
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Prision overcrowding explored
A few items from the news:
•In New York, Governor Mario
Cuomo has announced a plan to build
new prison space to house 3,400
additional inmates, butmany officials
believe that the new construction will
be insufficient to cure overcrowding
problems.
•In Connecticut a few weeks ago,
female prisoners were released early
from the state's only correctional fa-
cility for women as inmate population
there neared 130 percent of intended
capacity.
•Here in Texas, the Department of
Corrections are requesting a 30-day
extension on a court order to reduce
the population of the state prison
system.
Both the courts and the states agree
that overcrowding in local, state, and
federal prisons is at a crisis level. It is
important to ask how the problem has
developed.
As the crime rate skyrocketed dur-
ing recent years, judges were pressed
to stiffen sentences handed out to con-
victed criminals. In states like Texas,
where judges are elected, no candi-
date could hope for success without
promising to "get tough on crimi-
nals".
Thus inmate populations have
shown a dramatic increase over the
past few years. A recent Bureau of
Justice report reveals that, between
1980 and 1986-, the number of people
incarcerated in state and federal pris-
ons increased by a full two-thirds.
Prison construction has proceeded at
a much slower rate.
For most states the long-term an-
swer to prison overcrowding is prison
SPANNING THE HEDGES
by David Schnur
construction. But prisons are expen-
sive to build—an average of 530,000
per cell for even a minimum security
prison. More secure prisons cost far
more. And construction can take
years, whereas prison crowding is a
problem today.
The stop-gap solutions to the
prison crisis are but two—to move
prisoners to local jails or to release
them on early parole.
Seventeen states have chosen the
first of these two options, but the
transfer oKprisoners can create as
many prot^ms as it solves. Local
jails are designed to be hold minor
offenders for short periods of time, or
to hold suspects on trial.
Local jails are not intended or
equipped for long-term housing for
violent criminals. It is potentially
dangerous to throw a murderer in the
same cell as someone arrested for
disorderly conduct, and stories such
as one of a priest arrested at a protest
and raped by his cellmate, are not
unheard of.
Texas has relied on the other op-
tion. On five occasions Gov. Bill
Clements has granted early parole to
well-behaved prisoners. Unfortu-
nately there are not many prisoners
who qualify for release under this
program, and by itself it is not enough
to bring Texas into compliance with
the court order.
One must ask, however, why in-
maites who qualify for early release
are in prison under any circum-
stances. Perhaps Texas should adopt
an early-release program similar to
one currently being tested in New
Jersey.
Through its Intensive Supervision
Program, New Jersey is avoiding
overcrowding in its prisons while at
the same time saving itself millions of
dollars.
Prisoners in jail for non-violent
crimes apply to be included in the
program. If selected, they are re-
turned to the streets, but under condi-
tions far more strict than for standard
parole. Parolees have strict curfews,
which are enforced by a computer-
ized check-in system. They are for-
bidden to take drugs or even to drink,
and face random urine tests.
To administer the program saves
the state more than $6,000per convict
over conventional incarceration. In
addition, parolees must find jobs or
enroll in job-training programs, and
thus most end up paying taxes into the
system. Some have even been re-
quired to pay the costs of their coun-
seling.
Those who hold the "lock 'em up
'til they rot" mentality would never
stand for a program that lets criminals
return to society. Perhaps they would
prefer a return to the old chain-gang
system.
In reality, thechain-gang is a viable
alternative. Labor camps could be
created, and inmates could be sent out
on supervised state construction
see Humaneness, page 4
Volunteer work brings rewards
I remember standing in Jackson
Middle School in front of a swarm of
6th, 7th and 8th graders. Most of these
kids are from impoverished neighbor-
hoods and had probably never spoken
face-to-face with a college student.
They were so eager to know all about
Rice and what it was like to be in
college. Most of all, I remember the
look on a small Hispanic boy's face
when / responded "yes" to his ques-
tion: "Doyouthinkl can go to college
and become an astronaut?" —Wiess
senior Eiran Mandelker.
In ten years, I don't think that I'll
remember the time that I made the 'A'
on a Biochem test; however I'll never
forget the Covenant House student
who said that he received a better job
RSVP REPORT
by Tri A. Dinh
after having passed the High School
Equivalency Test. The previous
week, I had helped him on fractions in
preparation.
The Rice Student Volunteer Pro-
gram (RSVP) was founded two years
ago by a handful of Rice undergradu-
ates who recognized a growing inter-
est among college students to partici-
pate in community service. Besides
serving as a clearing-house for volun-
teer activites in the Houston area,
RSVP coordinates many of its own
service opportunities which reflect
specific interests and abilities of the
Rice community.
Understanding the time constraints
academics gives Rice students, and
the difficulties which many students
have with transportation, RSVP seeks
to make community service acces-
sible, even easy, for Rice volunteers.
During the past year, over 350
weekly volunteers were involved in
such diverse activities as tutoring
adult illiterates to read and write,
teaching English to newly arrived
refugees, painting the home of a sen-
ior citizen, befriending juveniles de-
tained at the Harris County Detention
Center, raising money for hunger re-
lief through a skip-a-meal program,
volunteering in hospitals at the
see Fall, page 4
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 3, Ed. 1 Friday, August 28, 1987, newspaper, August 28, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245669/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.