Shortchange Charleston: What This School’s Performance Shows About Financial Inequality

I happened to be lucky enough this year to see Columbia University’s Varsity show, an annual satire on university life now it’s in 121st year. For me the highlight of the show was a number called “Shortchange Charleston.”

It’s a Kafka-esque number about a student navigating the financial aid office in her quest to be able to finish her degree. At her first stop, the financial aid drones tell her to use the net price calculator, “a very sophisticated tool” which turns out to be an abacus. As she moves up the ranks of employees in the department, ending with the Dean of Financial Aid, it becomes clear that the office is a ruse and has no intention of helping her to afford her education.

Despite its high rankings, we rarely think of Columbia as being affordable. With an annual price tag of over $64,000.00, families must have robust college saving accounts (because not many families can afford to pay over $250,000 for one child’s education).

In order to afford Columbia and schools with similar price tags most parents must save since their children are babies. Even with college savings accounts and the benefits of 529 accounts (legally known as “qualified tuition plans”) most Americans cannot afford to spend over $250,000 for one child’s education.

It has been well-publicized that Lee Bollinger, Columbia’s president, recently received a $700,000.00 annual raise, bringing his salary over 3 million dollars, and making him the fourth-highest-paid university president in the country. This increase was milked for many laughs by the Varsity Show, but the truth is actually far from funny.

How does Columbia feel it justifiable to pay their president over 3 million dollars? How do students and their families accept this truth — even the ones who can afford the school? How tone deaf are the trustees that they feel it’s appropriate to pay a president this amount of money — even the president of an institution like Columbia?

This situation is emblematic of higher education in this country today: it’s unaffordable and unattainable for most Americans, and getting a university degree is increasingly becoming a privilege only for the elite.

The same people who pay the president’s salary must know there are plenty of students, like the one in the show doing the “Shortchange Charleston,” who cannot continue at the school due to lack of financial aid. And while students at no-loan universities (which promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need with institutional grants and scholarships) have a much lower debt than the average student, even those who qualify for a full package still must borrow modest amounts for the cost of living.

Let’s not forget the students from middle class families, who get no such deals. The cost of attendance for those students rests solely on their ability to pay or to borrow — and borrow they do.

And for these students, the Shortchange Charleston is no laughing matter.

This post was originally published at www.planthepathblog.com.