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Colleges Face Dire Cutbacks, Tuition Hikes

Needy students may lose out as college funding models collapse

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 8, 2008 7:04 AM CST

(Newser) – Colleges and universities around the country are facing budget shortfalls so steep they could change the way they do business forever, the New York Times reports. With endowments shriveling, state financing being slashed, the cost of debt rising, and donors scaling back, both public and private institutions are cutting staff, postponing construction projects, pulling back financial aid, and raising tuition.

Ambitious plans to make institutions "need-blind"—choosing the best-qualified students regardless of their financial status—are likely to fall by the wayside, just at the time they are most needed. "The target of being need-blind is our highest priority," said the president of Tufts University. "But with what’s happening in the larger economy, we expect that the incoming class is going to be needier. That’s the real uncertainty."

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

A couple of University of Southern Mississippi students share a bench, Friday,Oct. 31. 2008, on the Hattiesburg, Miss., campus. (AP Photo/University of Southern Mississippi )

Students walk the campus at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

A students walks to class on the campus of Arizona State University Tuesday, July 10, 2007 in Tempe, Ariz. The university has announced the end of 200 instructor contracts. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

A couple walks past Nassau Hall on the Princeton Unversity campus in Princeton, N.J. in this Dec. 18, 2001 file photo. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer )

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What we’ve done in higher education is let our dreams and aspirations dictate our cost structure. - Robert J. Massa, vice president for enrollment at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania

Higher education is very labor intensive. We may be getting to the point where there will have to be some basic change in the model. - Mark G. Yudof, president of the University of California system

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Colleges Face Dire Cutbacks, Tuition Hikes