Quiz: Two truths and a lie.
- Between the ends of fiscal years 2020 and 2021, Harvard University’s endowment increased from $41.9 billion to $53.2 billion.[1]
- At the end of fiscal year 2021, Harvard University had an operating surplus of $283 million, compared to a $10 million deficit at the end of fiscal year 2020.[2]
- Though Harvard Law School in past years offered its students $50 per year in printing credits (equivalent to 500 free black-and-white pages), HLS chose this year to “retire” that credit, and, while making printing half as expensive out-of-pocket, offered its students no printing credits at all (equivalent to 0 free black-and-white pages).
Answer: It was a trick question. They’re all true.
How can a university be so rich yet so stingy? Harvard Law School explained its printing decision in an email to students as “especially beneficial for those who have high print needs.” In other words, it helps those who print significantly more than 500 black-and-white pages a year. Black-and-white pages are now 5 cents a page instead of 10 cents a page, so for that segment of the population—the high rollers, or “high printers” I suppose—the change may indeed be helpful. But the rest of us—which I imagine is most of us—get nothing. Why not now give students $25 instead of $50, so that, with the cheaper price, you offer the same number of free pages?
It seems a strange financial hill to die on. HLS is full of similarly hidden fees. Take the Trial Advocacy Workshop, for example. In September and January, this 3-week class runs from 2pm to 9pm, with an hour break for dinner from 6-7pm. The class provides dinner, but for whatever reason, you have to pay $8 each night for it. In theory, you can bring your own dinner, if you can find time to make something non-perishable during this marathon of a course. Or you can go buy dinner, but the break is only an hour long, and you’ll miss out on valuable trial preparation time. HLS provides food for plenty of school events, most of which are not connected to any course, so why not provide food for TAW? Does a tuition payment for this class not implicitly include the opportunity to experience all of it?
Winter term clinical externships operate analogously, though on a larger scale. When you sign up for an academic offering, it seems rational to expect that it will not cost you more than the tuition you’ve already forked over. But clinical assignments that require winter travel, such as the Capital Punishment Clinic or the Criminal Justice Appellate Clinic, expect students to live within a $2000 budget.[3] It’s very helpful funding, but it may not be enough to both travel to and live in some metro areas, especially when making plans on short notice (students may not learn where they will be spending their January until late in the fall term). Reasonable travel and housing expenses, even if they rise above $2000, ought to be financed by the school hosting the academic opportunity.
To step back for a moment: providing more funding for any of these situations will not alone amount to serious financial change. In the modern world of law school, where students are forced to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to pay tuition, $50 or even $500 here or there is not going to be the tipping point that makes such debt unbearable or coercive. Alas, we’ve already reached that point.
But these fees still create barriers—barriers that HLS would be wise to remove. Students are likely to feel less welcome when HLS asks them to pay for participation; in some cases, the hurdles may fully disincentivize students from taking part in certain educational opportunities at all. If the message HLS sends is that it isn’t worth their chump change to feed us in the middle of a 7-hour class, it’s tough to feel encouraged to join the group dinner and enjoy the spontaneous educational and networking opportunities it provides.
When HLS is part of the wealthiest university in the world—and when students put up nearly $70,000 a year in tuition to attend—it is unbecoming to be so stingy. You can afford it, Harvard. Let us print for free.
——————————————————————
[1] https://finance.harvard.edu/files/fad/files/fy21_harvard_financial_report.pdf, page 9
[2] See above at page 6.