Tuition and the endowment

I found the recent issue of more than passing interest, not least the story about rising attendance costs, especially tuition (Campus Notebook, March 6).

In the early summer of 1957, as an accepted engineering-student applicant, I received a 21-page booklet from Princeton. Sent to help the applicants and their families in their financial planning, it was titled “Expenses, Scholarships, Tuition Loans, and Student Employment.” It listed certain yearly costs as follows: tuition, $1,100; room rent, $205 (average); books, $85. Total annual costs were listed as $2,350. I still have the booklet; thinking of my own young grandchildren, it is sobering to consider what lies ahead for them, whatever path they choose for higher education, as current costs now total not far from $60,000 a year.

The importance of Annual Giving and endowment performance loom large nowadays, not least against a backdrop such as these numbers suggest.