Cultivating One's Mind. Source: New York Times.

Berea College in Kentucky doesn’t charge its students tuition.  This contrasts sharply with many of the nation’s most prestigious schools, which charge hefty sums for tuition despite their astounding endowments.  Are the Ivies just become havens of America’s intellectual and economic elite?  The New York Times thinks so:

[A]ccording to 2002 data, only one in 10 of the students at the nation’s most selective institutions come from the bottom 40 percent of the income scale. And the proportion of low-income undergraduates at the nation’s wealthiest colleges has been declining, as measured by the percentage receiving federal Pell Grants, for families with income under about $40,000. At most top colleges, only 8 to 15 percent of students receive Pell grants.

The Senate and IRS are now investigating whether universities should be required to spend 5% of their endowments on education annually in order to maintain their tax exempt status.  The IRS and Congress tend to prefer that tax exemptions apply only on income that suits the public good.  If hefty endowments aren’t being used to broaden access to higher education, what public good do they serve?

Several of the Ivies have stepped up tuition assistance for students from low-income families, but, as the Times points out, the student bodies are becoming ever more priviledged.  Harvard, Yale, et al., beware: continue to lock out the poor and you may have to hire more accountants.

Yale Law School student Amelia Rawls complains in the Post about the callousness of the high-achievers of her generation:

…[S]ometimes some of these students will denounce world hunger but be unfriendly to the homeless. They will debate environmental policy but never offer to take out the trash. They will believe vehemently in many causes but roll their eyes when reminded to be humble, to be generous and to “do what is right.”

Maybe they will gladly accept positions at prestigious universities that will continue their privileged positions in society. Will Ms. Rawls gladly accept a high salaried position upon graduation, a salary only possible by charging clients outrageous fees?

Nonetheless, her point is good.  Many people adopt fashionable causes with little sincere regard to those they claim to represent.  A recent Slate article discusses George Orwell’s complaint about England’s condescending Socialists:

[George] Orwell also rails against the condescension many on the left display toward those they profess to care most about. Describing a gathering of leftists in London, he says, “every person there, male and female, bore the worst stigmata of sniffish middle-class superiority. If a real working man, a miner dirty from the pit, for instance, had suddenly walked into their midst, they would have been embarrassed, angry and disgusted; some, I should think, would have fled holding their noses.”

Grave hypocrisy of this sort is the result of the fair weather adoption of popular causes.  For instance, it may be all the rage to adopt environmentalism (accompanied by the obligatory complaints against the Bush Administration, and installation of CFLs), just so long as one doesn’t have to give up a spacious suburban home and personal cars.