LETTERS

HOW COLLEGES ARE GOUGING U

"When the trust placed in colleges evaporates in the face of unreasonable costs, the ivory towers will collapse under their own weight." STEPHEN D. HAUFE Clinton, Iowa

Erik Larson's investigative report about why college tuition is so high was right on the money [EDUCATION, March 17]. The miserly mentality of universities and colleges regarding their endowments, the practice of charging whatever the traffic will bear and the history of quasi legal collusion by the Ivy League's Overlap Group are disturbing. What concerns me even more is that these are supposed to be the top U.S. colleges--icons of leadership and principle. But they are behaving like a bunch of followers. They protect their bottom line while they try to impress prospective students and "look as good as Harvard." The ethics gap between what is taught and what is done by the institutions is apparently an ever widening one. BRUCE D. SHEPHARD Tampa, Florida

It is about time somebody attempted to explain why costs are rising instead of suggesting ways in which people can save for these hikes. This is a perfect example of how greedy capitalism is dismantling the American Dream. DANIEL CASTELO Cleveland, Tennessee

To generalize the situation at the University of Pennsylvania and other Ivy League schools and apply it to major universities across the board is like using the cost of a Lexus to discuss the price of an average family van. In the real world of most institutions, faculty members do not average earnings of $121,000 a year; they are lucky to make $40,000. And they are teaching larger classes with fewer resources and support staff and reduced budgets for essential expenses. Unfortunately, Larson's diatribe will probably be used by state legislatures as justification to cut the budgets of many public institutions. JOHN BUNCH, Assistant Professor Department of Management Kansas State University Manhattan, Kansas

Comparing the Penn of 1976 with the Penn of today does not take into full account the growth of the school as a research institution. Although the number of undergraduate students has remained roughly constant since 1970, the amount of research work in dollars at Penn had grown to $300 million by 1996. You should have acknowledged that much of the increase in infrastructure and employee expenditures was necessary to feed the growth in research, and not simply used to provide education for the same number of students. VICTOR PRINCE Dallas

Articles on college tuition costs appear as frequently as stories about what's wrong with NCAA intercollegiate sports. But exposes of college spending rarely mention the financial extravagances of NCAA-run athletics. Tuition payers at both affluent and less affluent colleges are bankrolling a vast entertainment industry that distracts from the educational mission and squanders millions. JAMES N. LOUGHRAN, S.J., President Saint Peter's College Jersey City, New Jersey

Tuition figures appear even more shocking when one considers the ever shortening academic year. When my son was in college, I had some research done to see if the kids attended class less than I did or if I was just an old fogy recalling "when I was in school." Old fogy I may have become, but between 1960-61 and 1990-91 the average academic year of 19 schools surveyed had decreased 5.3%. Four of the 19 schools had increased the number of teaching days as much as 4%, but this was more than offset by decreases in school days at the University of Pennsylvania (8.3%), Oberlin and N.Y.U. (11%) and Princeton (17.9%). How can teaching days have decreased in the decades of the information explosion? DAVID BAMBERGER Cleveland, Ohio

In 1924, when I attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we assumed that "no frills" was the part of college education that toughened you up for the future. A hard mattress, no pillow, a 40-watt bulb, concrete floors, a muddy campus, hobnail boots and highly committed but probably underpaid teachers all contributed to making tuition $180, half a room $29 and meals at Swain Hall $126 for the year. That was the normal road to Phi Beta Kappa. EDWARD RONDTHALER Croton-on-Hudson, New York

Can the day be far off when getting an Ivy League degree will be a sure sign of lack of intelligence? JEAN G. FITZPATRICK Ossining, New York

I was struck by the extraordinary parallels between private higher education today and the health-care sector of the '70s and early '80s. In both, costs rose much faster than inflation. There was price-based costing rather than cost-based pricing. In health care, the result was a market-driven revolution in the way medical services were financed and delivered, including rapid consolidation of providers to eliminate costly duplication of resources. There was fierce competition among the survivors to cut prices and document quality, and the "payers" became the dominant force in calling the shots. Could private higher education be the next market target? DAVID L. MITCHELL Del Mar, California

So now that baby boomers are grappling with how to pay college tuition for their children, it's an issue. It is ironic that just a few years ago, when Generation Xers complained about their student loans, they were branded as whiners. Back in the '80s, financial-aid officers persuaded us not to worry; the "investment" would pay off. Lo and behold, after an era of corporate downsizing, our educations have become a form of indenture. College graduates matriculate to live at home; families and mortgages have been postponed. I'm disappointed that none of the $50 billion in recent legislative proposals include any amnesty for existing college debt. JERRY VYE Glencoe, Illinois

The cyberuniversity is the future. Kids will not go to a campus; they will work and study at home or at the office. Degrees will not be needed. When someone wants a job, he will be tested and given an internship for a period of time. It is a shame that both author Larson and President Clinton have missed the boat and are still in the Dark Ages. BILL DIECKS Houston

Highly qualified, gifted people (typical Ivy League students) will excel in their careers no matter what college they attend. Parents are suckers to believe otherwise. They certainly are not giving their children enough credit. KEN WAGNER Sierra Vista, Arizona

There is a fundamental explanation for why the cost of higher education is rising at a faster rate than the Consumer Price Index, and it is not irresponsible "gouging." Knowledge is growing at a rate considerably faster than the CPI--at 4% to 8% a year, according to one study. To meet this expansion, colleges like St. Olaf have had to hire more professors, purchase more publications and finance more laboratories to bring this knowledge to the undergraduate student. In addition, the number of publications that disseminate knowledge and their costs have greatly outpaced inflation. Rises in the price of computers and lab equipment easily outstripped rises in the CPI, and these essentials become obsolete at a dizzying pace and must be replaced. MARK U. EDWARDS JR., President St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota

PESKY POLITICAL DONATIONS

Your article "Legal Tender," about political fund raising in the White House, was interesting but also disturbing [NATION, March 17]. It appears that instead of building a bridge to the 21st century, the Clinton-Gore team put up a Golden Gate to the Lincoln Bedroom. JACK ROOSA Gulfport, Mississippi

Those who are in charge of the congressional hearings have the majority in both houses and can pass meaningful campaign-finance-reform legislation, if that is what they really want. Sadly, I think we will find the real purpose of the hearings is to embarrass the Democrats. When the smoke has cleared, there will be no real reform. Business as usual. BILL RICHMOND Carmichael, California

How hypocritical we are! We have long snickered at some neighboring countries in South America as banana republics. But now, between PAC money for Congress and solicited campaign gifts virtually being left on the nightstand in the Lincoln Bedroom by Clinton's "friends," we can truly say favors and legislation are for sale in the U.S. MARTIN JANSEN Agoura Hills, California

The White House belongs to the American people. It is immoral for the highest elected official of the U.S. to debase our national heritage by selling influence to foreign interests for personal political gain. When will our politicians learn that what is morally wrong is never legally right? LELAND CHOU Elizabeth City, North Carolina

Enterprising hotel operators should copy the decor of the Lincoln Bedroom several times and rent the rooms to anyone who can pay for them. Perhaps political parties and foreign countries could rent blocks of the rooms for their friends. Of course, these duplicate accommodations would tend to diminish the prestige of that bedroom in the White House, which could even add several trailers on its grounds. Then social climbers could claim to have spent a night in the "Lincoln Bedroom" at the White House but not necessarily in the White House. CHARLES F. NELSEN Oakhurst, California

DRAWING DEATH'S LINE

As a Dutch native I was interested to read your article on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands [WORLD, March 17]. Here in Dallas I've been accused of coming from a society that likes to kill sick people. However, we in the Netherlands assist the death only of those who are living in constant pain and suffering. JAN BURGERS Dallas

You glossed over the 900 people who have been euthanized in the Netherlands without asking for it, and viewed this as merely "troublesome." Wouldn't "murder" be a more fitting description? (And 900 is only the number reported.) Many elderly people in the Netherlands today are afraid to enter a hospital and wonder whether they can trust their own doctors with their life. Physicians who once vowed to preserve and enhance life may now be authors of death. The Netherlands, though beloved as the land my parents emigrated from, is a frightening reminder of what can go wrong when doors are opened to euthanasia. RUTH MEERVELD Beamsville, Ontario

CONCERNS OVER NUCLEAR POWER

I am a former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and must point out that Eric Pooley's sharp criticism of the agency [BUSINESS, March 17] fails to acknowledge the real measure of success of the NRC and those it regulates: there has never been a commercial nuclear power plant accident in the U.S. in which radiation harmed the public, a commendable industrial record. The NRC, like all regulatory organizations, has weaknesses and at times overreacts to situations. Striving for improvement should be a continuing process and one for which NRC chairman Shirley Ann Jackson and her colleagues should have our encouragement and support. Even with its weaknesses, the NRC is still the premier nuclear safety agency in the world. FORREST J. REMICK State College, Pennsylvania

TIME asks if the NRC can fix itself. Maybe it can. So what, when some other part of the tremendously complex and very human system can go awry? This is why the nation needs to reassess its commitment to all forms of nuclear technology. The danger is not the degree of risk but the horrendous consequences of a nuclear accident. JOAN O. KING Sautee, Georgia

As a designer at Northeast Utilities' Millstone 3 plant in Waterford, Connecticut, which is currently shut down and on the NRC's watch list, I can tell you firsthand that Pooley's suggestion that a clandestine atmosphere and oppressive management tactics were prevalent at Millstone is simply not true. His article sounded more like the review of a sequel to the movie China Syndrome than an accurate report on the progress of the NRC and Northeast Utilities. BRIAN BOHMBACH Niantic, Connecticut

HEDY LAMARR'S PATENT

You did a terrible job of reporting on Hedy Lamarr's being recognized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her patent in the electronic frequency-hopping technology used in satellite and cellular phones [PEOPLE, March 17]. You trivialized her achievement by referring to her nude appearance in the film Ecstasy when she was just a teenager. Nine years later, without recompense, she gave her patent to the U.S. As a refugee from a fascist state, she is in the company of Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and many other notable people. BURTON SEIWELL Nuremberg, Pennsylvania

I wish you had mentioned that my uncle George Antheil, an American composer who died in 1959, shared the patent with Hedy Lamarr. Uncle George and Hedy were friends in the 1940s, and after they received the patent, which was for technology they had hoped would be used with torpedoes, they, in the spirit of the war effort, donated the patent to the U.S. government. Neither Hedy nor my uncle nor his family ever profited from the patent. ARTHUR ANTHEIL MCTIGHE Hightstown, New Jersey

THE BUZZ ABOUT THE COMET

While it is not for me to speculate on the mad rantings of conspiracy theorists and prophets of doom, I feel it is sad that a rare celestial event such as the approach of the comet Hale-Bopp [SPACE, March 17] is not appreciated for what it is--one of nature's many works of beauty. And if life on earth may owe its existence to the impact of comets, I will take solace in the possibility that this could be repeated elsewhere in the universe, long after our species has finished squabbling over the limited resources of this planet. DANIEL MODELL Syracuse, New York

HERDS OF SNOWMOBILES

I recently returned from a tour of Yellowstone Park in an eight-passenger snow coach. As you noted in your story about the problems that arise between snowmobiles and bison in the park [ENVIRONMENT, March 17], there is nothing for the bison to eat, so they must slowly starve to death or take the plowed road out of Yellowstone.

In a bad winter like this one, the bison could be fed the way the elk are in Wyoming in the National Elk Refuge. Or Native Americans could harvest the bison in order to limit their number to the carrying capacity of the park. In addition, snowmobiles could be developed that are quieter and cleaner, and the numbers entering the park restricted. These suggestions would not leave Yellowstone in a "natural" state, but this is impossible as long as any people and machines are allowed. GERTRUDE K. PETERSON Cheyenne, Wyoming

As a snowmobiler, I want to set the record straight. Most of us endeavor to do as little damage to the environment as possible. We don't tear past wild animals at 100-plus m.p.h. When it doesn't snow, the parks see more dirt bikes, four-wheelers and other all-terrain vehicles than snowmobiles. Yes, our machines are loud, their exhaust is dirty, and they can be dangerous. But no more so than other recreational vehicles allowed in the park. Finally, none of the helmets I've ever worn looked anything like Darth Vader's. STACEY DAVIS Mill Creek, Washington

Permitting unlimited numbers of snowmobiles into already crowded parks will unquestionably result in higher accident rates. It just may take a few dead bison or martyred skiers to bring control and regulation to a sport that will accept no limits. SCOTT SILVER, Executive Director Wild Wilderness Bend, Oregon

Has anyone considered asking Disney to create a Yellowstone-like snowmobile park? What a wonderful place that could be for those who pretend to love nature and who truly love snowmobiles. Noise, pollution and destruction of the land would be available to all who come. Disney could even build audio-animatronic buffalo. And just as in the real Yellowstone (thanks to the snowmobiles), buffalo could be slaughtered. Gee, what a wonderful sight--bleeding audio-animatronic buffalo! CAROL CONAWAY Louisville, Kentucky