Defending PriCom's spending habits

The Priorities Committee offers an efficient, fair, and proven means of setting the University's operating budget. I had the fortunate opportunity of serving on the committee during the past year and feel I must defend the process after reading Brad Simmons' misguided criticisms in his Feb. 6 editorial.

PriCom is an extraordinarily efficient method of proposing an operating budget. The committee is composed of administrators, faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates, all of whom have an equal vote. Members deliberate carefully before even considering an increase in the budget, and these frank discussions — involving representatives from all areas of the University — result in a comprehensive understanding of budget requests.

Mr. Simmons' claim that University administrators endorse "unbridled spending" is absurd. Having witnessed these deliberations, I know that the committee and Board of Trustees were extremely loath to increase tuition any more that was absolutely necessary to support the very highest priority needs. This year, the Library and Health Services received more than half of the resources available to be allocated by the Committee. The Library has faced skyrocketing costs of journals and periodicals, while University Health Services has failed to adequately address students' physical and mental health needs.

Mr. Simmons further suggested that the University unfairly sets the tuition too high. He argued that "Ivy League Universities function as a monopoly, calibrating their tuition hikes to avoid price wars that might bring-down costs." First of all, high tuition costs are hardly an Ivy League phenomenon. Other universities that offer — by all objective measurements — lower quality education than Princeton (such as Brandeis, Southern Methodist and Pepperdine) charge a tuition that is similar to or greater than Princeton's. Next year, Princeton tuition, room, and board will cost roughly $36,000. Even those students who do not receive any financial aid will only be paying for approximately one-half the expense of their education. Certainly, this is a fair price to pay. Secondly, price wars are impossible in such a heavily subsidized setting. In fact, it is notable that Princeton has kept its cost of tuition so low, despite soaring increases in demand.

Thanks to generous alumni donations, the University can grant all the requests PriCom approves while charging higher tuition only to those who can afford to pay it. Princeton's aggressive financial aid policy recently changed all loans to grants and also eliminated home equity from the determination of student needs. Now, even families with incomes as high as $200,000 a year are eligible for aid. The University should be praised for implementing this remarkable aid policy even as it continues to hold down tuition costs compared to its peers.

The process of setting a budget and tuition through a representative PriCom before final approval of the Finance Committee has stood the test of time. The work of past committees has helped put the University in its current position, ranked number one in undergraduate education while tuition is expected to be among the lowest, if not to remain the lowest, of its comparison group. This helps explain why U.S. News and World Report also ranked Princeton as offering one of the top five educational values.

Nevertheless, Mr. Simmons argues that the University should use its "ocean of endowment" to fund high priorities, instead of saving it for the "rainiest day ever." By using only a fraction of the income from the endowment, the Trustees have insulated the University from some of the sharp decreases in the market. Many of our peer institutions have had to make budget reductions to balance their books. The Trustees manage the endowment in a way that allows the University to withstand downturns in the market and, at the same time, increase the rate of spending during good times to ensure that an already exceptionally strong academic program is enhanced.

Mr. Simmons concluded that since PriCom fails to recognize the priorities of parents, a wealthy parent should be added to the Committee to control tuition increases. The fact of the matter is that several members of the Board of Trustees (which votes on the operating budget before it is finally approved) are parents of recent, current, and prospective students. All members of PriCom interact with the school on a day to day basis. Student representatives have a general idea of the major concerns across the University. Likewise, the faculty and administrators have a sense of how the university community functions. A parent on the Priorities Committee would only be attuned to the concerns of their own son or daughter (mine would ask the Committee to implement a daily undergraduate nap requirement) and would therefore lead to less-efficient conversations. Instead of offering inefficient input to PriCom, concerned parents are correctly placed the Board of Trustees.

To be sure, this University's use of the Priorities Committee to set an operating budget is extremely efficient, fair, and proven. Representatives from across campus participate in efficient deliberations. These discussions result in an operational budget that has proven to provide a topnotch educational experience to those lucky enough to pay a fair, subsidized price for it.

William Robinson is an economics major from Pine Bluff, Ark.