As the price of attending college increases each year, various schools-including Duke-have launched ambitious financial aid campaigns to ensure their institutions' accessibility to all students.

Several university officials across the nation have identified this trend as a necessity to achieve the goals of any school. Universities and the government are unable to support higher education costs for many students.

According to a document released by The State Public Interest Research Group's Higher Education Project, American undergraduates faced more than $31 billion in unmet financial need in the 2003-2004 academic year.

In order to curb the growing problem, several universities are facing it head on.

Brown University announced last week the launch of a $400-million initiative specifically geared at fundraising for financial aid.

The University of Chicago is currently trying to raise $289 million. Wake Forest University and the University of Michigan also have similar campaigns in the works.

Duke's Financial Aid Initiative-set to begin its public phase in December-is also in full swing, raking in approximately $100 million for the aid endowment since January 2005.

The Initiative is a campaign targeted at raising the percentage of endowed aid the University provides to all undergraduate and graduate students.

Endowed funds are invested by its respective university and cannot be used for any expenses.

Money returned from investments, however, can be used to fund programs, like financial aid.

"It's unlikely that we will ever see an end to these types of campaigns," said Tony Pals, director of public information for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "Institutional aid will continue to be an important source for providing these students with access."

The need for aid

Experts cited two main factors influencing the need for more institutional funding: the effective decrease of federal grant funding and the rise in the number of students who need aid.

Currently, institutions provide four times as much grant aid as the federal government does, Pals said.

Throughout the last two years, federal funding for student aid has remained stagnant despite inflation.

The result is that individual institutions are becoming increasingly more responsible for providing their students with aid.

"Colleges have to fill the gaps," Pals said.

There is also a growing number of lower-income college students, he noted.

He projected that the college-age population will increase by nearly 20 percent over the next 10 years.

Twenty percent of the people comprising that increase will live at or below the poverty level, Pals said.

Susan Ross, director of financial aid development, has already recognized an increased need for financial aid nationally.

"The increasing demand has led all universities to examine financial aid programs," she said.

This influx of lower-income students in need of aid comes at a time when many institutional endowments are just beginning to earn money again after suffering declines in giving following Sept. 11, 2001, Pals added.

Tuition increases spur fundraising

Landmark College in Vermont-a school for students with learning disabilities and the nation's most expensive institution for higher learning since 1998-has increased tuition by $11,238 over the last seven years to a current price tag of $37,738.

The growth constitutes a 42-percent hike in tuition.

In the same time period, Brown University and Wesleyan University increased their tuition by 20.1 percent and 21.1 percent respectively. These figures do not include room and board fees.

Duke's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences cost $33,017 in total expenses during the 2000-01 school year.

Now the cost of a Trinity education is $41,239-a nearly 25-percent spike.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education almanacs, these schools are not alone in their tuition increases.

Analyses of the data released last month by the Department of Education suggests that millions of students nationwide cannot afford the rising costs.

Students with significant levels of unmet aid are forced to turn to other, non-institutional sources for funding-namely federal loans and part- or full-time jobs.

"The University's commitment to assume the share of costs that a family cannot afford to pay is our chief way of assuring that we select and recruit students on the grounds of ability, dedication and promise alone, not of family circumstance," President Richard Brodhead said in his State of the University address to the faculty Oct. 20.

Similar commitments are what officials at other institutions claim are at the heart of their financial aid campaigns.

"Families consistently overestimate the cost of college and underestimate the financial aid available," said University of Michigan spokesperson Julie Peterson, explaining that the announcement of an aid campaign also serves as an advertisement for funds that will become available to prospective students.

"We really want to drive home the message, 'Everyone can afford to go to Michigan,'" she said.

Compelling gift-giving opportunities

Administrators cited reasons beyond accessibility for students as factors influencing universities to undertake such aid initiatives.

For Duke, Brodhead identified decreasing the amount of aid provided through the operating budget as a reason for the Initiative.

"Duke meets its aid commitments out of the same pool of funds that support most everything else here, including academic programs," Brodhead said in his Oct. 20 address. "In lean years or hard times, Duke's need to fund student aid will be in competition with its need to fund the programs that would make top students and faculty want to come here in the first place."

According to data from Duke's Office of Financial Aid, out of the $48.1 million used to fund need-based aid this academic year, nearly $40 million will come from the University's operating budget.

Aside from freeing up budgets, various college officials said financial aid campaigns are attractive to potential donors for other reasons.

"[Donors] think it's a very good thing to do," said Ron Vanden Dorpel, senior vice president of university advancement at Brown. "It's like the old adage: 'If you want to ensure someone's never hungry, don't give him a fish, teach him how to fish.' If you can provide a leg up it's a very philanthropic thing to do."

Duke's initiative

Although some schools' financial aid campaigns are included within larger capital campaigns, Duke chose to focus fundraising efforts specifically on need-based aid.

The University's last capital campaign-the "Campaign for Duke," which ended in 2003-also raised funds for financial aid, but not every Duke school met their stated goals, Ross said.

During the Campaign, $300 million was raised for financial aid.

Only $198 million of that was earmarked for endowed aid, Ross noted.

"When a lot of things are on a list, really important things get put on the back burner-financial aid deserves to be put on the front burner," Ross said.