Last week, Harvard announced tuition, room and board for the 1998-99 school year will amount to $31,132. Though the smallest increase in 30 years at 3.5 percent, Harvard's price is still one of the highest, even among its closest rivals. For 1998-99, Yale's tuition, room and board costs $30,830, Princeton's is $30,465, and Stanford's is $28,870. When tuition is as high as it is, celebrating an increase of any amount--let alone one that is higher than the rate of inflation--is hard to swallow.

Moreover, given the improvements in financial aid policy announced by these three schools in the past month--changes which Harvard has not answered with a plan of its own--Harvard risks falling behind the pack and losing many middle-and lower-income applicants.

It is time for Harvard to be innovative. Though financial aid and admissions officers have declined comment, both President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles have acknowledged the need to act. In a letter to the editor, Secretary of the Faculty John B. Fox, Jr. reported that at the Feb. 10 FAS Faculty Meeting, Dean Knowles said, "[T]he scrutiny of financial aid...is of course, made more pressing by the recent actions, for example, of Princeton and Yale...We must...ensure that the students we admit not only can but do come."

Princeton, Yale and Stanford have made a private college education more affordable in response to the fact that an increasing number of top students are opting for public colleges and universities for financial reasons. In response, the institutions have increased financial aid by providing more grants and by disregarding at least $90,000 of family assets in calculating financial aid. Harvard could spend just 1 percent more of its endowment and actually decrease tuition. This would still involve endowment spending comparable to that of other similar institutions.

Duke, the only other school in the U.S. News and World Report's top five not to announce financial aid reform, already eases the financial uncertainty by freezing fees for each class at the level when they are admitted--a simple change that, if enacted here, would take some of the sting out of Knowles' yearly tuition pronouncements.

As April approaches, Harvard will be facing a dire picture if accepted students think with their bank accounts in mind. It is the time for the University to acknowledge what it has at stake: the diverse economic background of its students, its ability to compete on equal footing with its closest rivals, and ultimately its prestige and place in the eyes of applicants. It is time for Harvard to lower its tuition and to strengthen its system of financial aid. EDITORIAL POLICY: Staff editorials represent the official positions of The Harvard Crimson. Dissents, letters, illustrations and signed commentary reflect the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of The Crimson.