How does the joke go? “In God we trust, all others pay cash.” Maybe Brown should change its motto from In Deo Speramus to Caveat Emptor. In a recently filed federal lawsuit, Brown University has been accused of colluding with several other universities in making admissions decisions “with regard to the financial circumstances of students and their families.” They are not supposed to do that. From the Boston Globe:
The lawsuit, filed Sunday in a US District Court in Illinois, alleges that these private national universities have “participated in a price-fixing cartel that is designed to reduce or eliminate financial aid as a locus of competition, and that in fact has artificially inflated the net price of attendance for students receiving financial aid.”
Brown University denies any wrong-doing.
“Based on a preliminary review, the complaint against Brown has no merit and Brown is prepared to mount a strong effort to make this clear,” university spokesman Brian Clark said in a statement to the Globe. “Brown is fully committed to making admission decisions for U.S. undergraduate applicants independent of ability to pay tuition, and we meet the full demonstrated financial need of those students who matriculate.
It’s complicated, but The Globe does a good job of explicating the relevant law, and they have a copy of the lawsuit within the article. Fun fact: Brown’s endowment is well over $6-billion. That’s “billion” with a ‘B’ as in Brown.
Students enter through the Van Wickle Gates only once in their time at Brown. The gates are only reopened when graduates exit at commencement.
The gates were built with the bequest of Augustus Stout Van Wickle 1876 . . . who was killed in a skeet shooting accident in 1898.
Yes, of course he was.