Crimson Financial Tide Lifts More Boats

This story, detailing Harvard's announcement of increased financial aid for low- and middle-income families, is nothing but good news. As the NYTimes' Karen Arenson correctly notes, "The quest by prestigious colleges to attract more low- and middle-income students is turning into a financial aid arms race." Two important takeaways:

1) Other elite colleges and universities can do more to promote access for students who aren't rich enough to afford a $30,000 tuition bill. Administrators should be prepared to answer the question: Harvard, Stanford, and other institutions are doing this--why aren't you?

2) While the nation's higher education institutions are fiercely independent, often to the point of obstinancy, they're also very sensitive to public perception. That's the dynamic here, as institutions realize that doing well and doing good go hand and hand. The challenge for reformers is to redefine the terms of that perception, shifting the values that inform institutional reputations away from the measures of fame, wealth, and exclusivity that dominate the U.S. News rankings and moving them toward more important things, like institutional success in serving economically disadvantaged students.