The University should work on finding ways to cut costs rather than boost revenues. There always are unnecessary or extravagant expenditures in any budget. Before the University asks for more from the students, maybe they should reevaluate what is central to the educational mission. An interesting subject for cocktail parties is not necessarily a prudent use of limited University resources. The problem of ever-rising tuition rates is compounded by the University's poor endowment.
Merit scholarships are in short supply here.
A handful of Jefferson Scholars and assorted ethnic grants does not make the grade. Need-based aid also is in seemingly shorter supply at the University than it is at other institutions. Many applicants who have received grant or loan offers from cheaper institutions received no such help from the University. Besides its fine reputation, certainly nothing to belittle, the University has little in the way to offer prospective students from the other 49 states. There is the Echols program, I suppose.