Their Relation to Higher Educational Finance
59
that increased tuition and fees are advisable in the interest of higher learning,
what reasons can be advanced for the carrying out of such a policy
which at first seems inhuman and hard-hearted ? To refuse to assist the
young person to “get on his feet” so to speak, is strictly against tradition
and sentiment, but if kept within reason it is not against common sense
and clear thinking. The task should not be made so difficult that the
Student will give up, but sufficiently difficult to make him appreciate the
value of the training he is getting. The fact that he has been paying
full price for his clothing and amusements has caused him to give no
less attention to these elements of his College life. A higher price for the
academic element ought not to lessen his zeal for it. It is contrary to
common sense to have the Student pay full price for everything in his
College life except that which should be the most important to him
—his intellectual training. In speaking on the cost of education to the
individual, Dr. Thwing says:
There is a fear among certain College people in America that the race
of rieh men will die out, that they will be unable to give in large sums. For
one, I do not so believe. New sources of revenue are to be discovered. ‘New
forces of Nature are to be discovered. The creation of power through the
tides, the making of nitrogen from the air, and new sources for electricity
will be conditions out of which riches will be earned in the future.’ In
securing larger revenues for the private institutions, the movement is strong
in charging a higher price for tuition. Fees have been greatly increased.. Such
merease is proper. Distinction should be made between the fee to be paid in the
undergraduate College of liberal learning and in the Professional school. Although
students do not enter the Professional schools in order to become rieh;
yet the Professional school is a tool which immediately fits them for self-support
and for aiding the community. The undergraduate College has for its purpose
the enlarging of the mind and sympathies of the graduate. It has a
pecuniary value of course—and a great pecuniary value. But this value is
not so significant as found in the case of the Professional school of medicine
or law. Professional education, in money, is extremely costly. It is now
costing the university seventeen hundred dollars ($1,700) for this year (1920-21)
to educate each of its students in the medical school, for which the
Student is paying two hundred dollars. The undergraduate cost is four
hundred dollars, and the Student pays less than two hundred dollars. The
endeavor for the better endowment of the College should be constant, and
the endeavor also for the Student to pay as large a share for his education
as possible should be continued. 81
The idea here is not necessarily to have the Student pay the full
cost of his education, but the full cost of that portion of it which is of
positive benefit to himself and brings a direct commercial return to him.
No argument can be raised against such a policy except doubtful and false
sentiment and arguments based on false concepts. All other products
which an individual purchases must be paid for at full value. No exception
must be made with training which should be the most highly prized of
all products.
31 C. F. Thwing, ‘'Support of Higher Fducation” in School and Society, March 19, 1921,
pp. 356-7.
