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$35,000 per year income as an engineer
must also pay for her older sister's
graduate school.
The only other source of income
Johnsen has are the social security
checks she has been receiving since her
mother died when Mary was 12, but
they don't make a dent towards the
$10,000 a year needed for an out-state
student to attend the University of
Michigan.
Johnsen's situation is not uncommon.
Each year the University raises tuition
and federal and state governments cut
move from financial aid, it faces many
students to find affordable alternatives
to an education at the University.
The economic peril threatens to
destroy the diversity of students the
University enrolls. The chance for an
education at the University of Michigan
is becoming available only to affluent
students. The possibility that the
University community will become
more homogeneous, only enrolling
people with the same values and same
background, is becoming more likely
each year.
"The trend is in that direction," ad-
mits Billy Frye, vice president for
academic affairs. You will have a
greater preponderance of affluence.
It is a bad trend because it limits the
access of students to a high quality
education.
"It denies equal access to social op-
portunities and future job oppor-
tunities. It nourishes a state of
inequality."
Liam Sugrue, one of nine children
from an Irish family in Queens. New
York is a freshman living in Alice
Lloyd Dormitory. It was only with a
-one-year merit' scholarship, financial
aid, and a 40-hour a week job that
Sugrue was able to enroll at the Univer-
sity. Next year, without the scholar-
ship, Sugrue won't be able to stay in
Ann Arbor.
"The University expects parents to
put in $5000 extra and there is no way
they can put it in," Sugrue says.
"Everyone else from out-of-state seems
to have bucks. Me and my roommates
are the poorest kids on the hall. More
and more, Michigan is becoming an
elite school. They keep on jacking up
the price."
- Tuition, room and board, and books
for one year is estimated to be $6,400 for
Michigan residents, and $10,000 for non-
residents. Even with financial aid, the
average in-state student comes up $800
short of the costs of attending the
University. For out-of-state students,
the figure is $5000, which is then made
up with guaranteed student loans,
scholarships, or family money.
This year the financial aid office
received 4,660 applications but was able
to provide only 10 percent of in-state
applicants with the entire amount of
money they needed. This is a dramatic
drop from the 95 percent of students the
office could fully accommodate in 1981.
Students from middle income
families are having the most difficult
time tryingto find outside resources to
make up for the high costs, says Harvey
Grotrian, director of financial aid.
Grotrian says he is concerned that
this trend will affect the diversity of.
students who can afford to attend the
University.
"We are not going to let this become
an institution for the poor and the
wealthy. We are trying to develop the
means as quickly as we can to see that
kind of polarization doesn't develop.
"We have been lulled into a sense of.
security relying on state support and
we must be more aggressive in
developing the private sources for
student aid."
Creating alumni scholarships, a
University loan program or boasting
private funds are viable options for the
future but, in the meantime, the lack of
money is deterring potential applicants
from considering Michigan.
A LUMNI RECRUITERS SAY
many low to middle-income
students aren't even considering
Michigan this year because they fear
there is no financial aid.
"Kids from the city aren't applying
because they are discouraged," said
Doris Rubinstein, chairman of scholar-
ships for the New York Alumni Club.
"They see the cost and the financial
aid available and they look at the odds
of not getting in and don't apply. And
they aren't poor, but middle class."
"The economic situation and the
rising costs makes the University of
Michigan almost unattainable or else
plunges a student into huge debt," she
said.
Students from the more affluent New
York suburbs such as Great Neck and
Roslyn, however, continue to send
about 100 students to Michigan each
year.
For wealthier students, Michigan is a
safety net. If they are denied ad-
missions at an Ivy League school, they
have Michigan to fall back on. In such
cases, Michigan is considered to be a
good deal compared to the more expen-
sive private Eastern schools.
A study conducted by the Univer-
sity's admissions office concluded that
15 out of 20 schools a Michigan ap-
plicant considers are private in-
stitutions, such as Harvard, Yale and
Cornell University.
Michigan is competing with these top
colleges for qualified applicants, and
students have become consumers,
trying to find the best deal for their
money. The University has increased
its recruiting programs, sending ad-
missions counselors or alumni
representatives all over Michigan and
the United States to attract more ap-
plicants.
A 14 percent increase in out-of-state
applications for next fall and a one per-
cent increase for in-state applications
can be attributed partially to these
recruiting efforts, said Lance Erickson,
associate admissions director.
But overall enrollment is steadily
decreasing. The high costs and studen-
ts' perception that there is not enough
financial aid is causing the decrease
along with the declining number of high
school graduates.
(The University's severe budget
problems in recent years, however,
have not altered the institution's image
among potential undergraduates. High
school counselors still consider the
University a highly competitive and
prestigious school.)
In order to fulfill the freshman
enrollment requirement this year, the
admissions office had to take almost 800
applicants from their wait list-300
more than in 1981. Only 62 percent of
Michigan residents who were admitted
actually enrolled and 34 percent of out-
state students, a 6 percent decrease
from 1981.
There is a lack of middle-income
students from out-state at the Univer-
sity, says Clif Sjogren, director of ad-
missions. The out-state students who
do get in here are often the ones who
would have otherwise gone to Ivy
League schools.
"We can't be as competitive as Ivy
League schools who can provide more
financial aid," Sjogren says. "We want
r
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COVER STORY.
Enrollment
Page 1
the Ark - an all-star lineup prevails, as Tom Paxton,
Bob Gibson, and Anne :Hills take the folk stage this
weekend.
CLASSICS
RESTAURANTS
The Earle
With inflation, rising tuition, and decreased finan-
cial aid, the University faces a dubious question: Can
a state institution of higher learning maintain both
superior standards and a diversified student body in.
difficult economic times? Cover photo and design by
Jeff Schrier.
THEATER
One of Ann Arbor's b4
lovers of fine food and r
DISCS
Olde sounds
Page 6
Siblings
Page 4
Chekhov's classis Three Sisters fraternize in
provincial Russia for a new PTP production. Mean-
while, the RC Players have a ball with playwright
Sam Shepherd.
MUSIC
The Academy of Early Music enjoy the sounds of
yesteryear, on lutes, harpsichords, and pipes. And
they're helping the rest of us appreciate vintage
classical as well.
THE LIST
Local winners
SLK and the Urbatio
cing to the tune of newly
listen with this week's r
BOOKS____ __
Happenings
Pages 7-10
Dance fever
Harvey Grotrian: Directing financial ad
to continue to attract really good
students. Despite (the fact) that the
percentage of students accepting us is
down in numbers, we are making up for
that in the quality of students."
The price for recruiting what Sjogren
calls the "blue chip student," however,
may be a loss in diversity for the
University.
Higher SAT scores and class ranks
which characterize a top-notch student
are directly related to higher socio-
economic class, Sjogren said. Usually
the parents' attitudes in these students'
homes or in their lifestyles are more
sophisticated. A student whose father is
a lawyer, for example, will often have
higher verbal SAT scores, Sjogren said.
The average SAT score for Univer-
sity freshmen this year was 1150 - a 540
verbal score and a 610 math score -
which is 10 points higher than 1981.
The high quality student often brings
a large wallet with him to the Univer-
sity and provides much needed
revenue because he pays the higher out-
state tuition. Enrollment is headed
toward more affluent students and
away from lower and middle income
students, Sjogren says.
"As price is increasing there is a
discouraging lower number of middle-
to low-income students coming from
typical high schools. Now we get in-
creasing numbers of students from af-
fluent districts with strong test scor'es,"
Sjogren says.
HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELORS are
seeing this same pattern among
their students. Jim Alexander, college
consultant at Highland Park High
School in Highland Park, Ill., which has
had as many as 50 students in a fresh-
man class at the University, says
students are moving away from private
or expensive public schools such as
Michigan, toward cheaper public
schools or community colleges.
"Kids are told limits by their parents.
..
They don't think they can afford to ap-
ply for aid when they either get nothing
and are denied aid, or they get some aid
and it is expected for parents to put in
the rest and there is no way they can af-
ford the cost," Alexander says.
The financial aid problem isn't the
same for poor students, he explains.
With them it is a simple matter of filing
paperwork for the aid.
Another problem is that Michigan's
time schedule for informing students
how much financial aid they can get is
so late in the year, it discourages
students from applying. An applicant
may have to wait until late April or May
after being accepted to the University
to find out if he or she can get enough
financial aid to actually enroll.
Other public universities, such as the
University of Iowa, inform students of
acceptance and financial aid
simultaneously, as early as October or
November. The University of Wiscon-
sin sends its housing applications out in
August before a student's senior year in
high school and the University of
Illinois' Greek system begins recruiting
students for fraternities and sororities
in November.
When a student who applied to
Michigan is waiting to hear from the
school, he or she is surrounded by peers
who already know their room assign-
ments, roommates and sometimes even
their classes. It can make the wait
frustrating and Michigan seem less ap-
pealing.
In-state applicants are having dif-
ficulties of a different kind. More
Michigan residents are staying home
and enrolling in community colleges or
less expensive state universities. In
some cases, a student will transfer to
Ann Arbor for his junior year to get a
degree from the University but saving
two years of expenses.
The University of Michigan-Flint,
for example, has received more ap-
plications in the past two years than
ever before. According to Monique
Calling Collins
Page 5
Your guide to fun times for the coming week in Ann
Arbor. Film capsules, music previews, theater notes,
and bar dates, all listed in a handy-dandy, day-by-day
schedule. Plus a roster of local restaurants.
You can't hurry Phil at the sold-out Major Events
featuring the former drummer of Genesis. Over at
Weekend Weekend is edited and managed by students on the Weekend, (313) 763-0
Friday, February 4, 1983 staff of The Michigan Daily at 420 Maynard, Ann Ar-Daily, 764-0552; Circulat
Vol. 1, Issue 15Mihgn a MyarDl,
Magazine Editor ..................Ben Ticho bor, Michigan, 48109. It appears in the Friday edition tising, 764-0554.
Associate Editors......................Larry Dean of the Daily every week during the University year
Mare Hodges and is available for free at many locations around the Copyright 1983, The Mi
Susan Makuch campus and city.
#M OCITIZEN
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14 Weekend/February 4, 1983