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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | M a r c h 2 0 2 3 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 21 F O C U S : C o l l e g e s & U n i v e r s i t i e s Tuition Trends Continued on next page at night and say, 'I did something to advance the cause of justice.'" YLS was well situated to lead the revolt, Diver added. "In some ways it had nothing to lose in terms of mar- ket position by pulling out, and it had something to gain, which is that they could associate them- selves with a truly noble cause," he said. Diver said he was surprised at how quickly other schools joined YLS's rejection of U.S. News rankings. Only a handful of schools had opted out of the system over the decades prior to Yale's announcement, even as a large majority of higher-education leaders criticized the rankings and bemoaned their impact on strategic decisions behind the scenes. "I've been kind of a lonely voice in the wilderness about rankings for quite a long time. Now, all of a sud- den, I have a lot of company. Really good company, in fact," Diver said. Even with the initial momentum, however, the pace of U.S. News re- jections had slowed dramatically by March, Diver noted. And only a single undergraduate liberal arts institution — Colorado College — had pulled the plug. e "Little Ivies" in the region like Wesleyan and Amherst had yet to announce defections as of early March. "I think quite a lot of schools are probably just deciding we're going to wait and see what happens because pretty soon the rankings will come out," Diver said. "e liberal arts colleges, they're also very social-justice oriented and they are affected by the rankings. … I was sort of hoping that some of those schools would break out of the pack." Looking ahead to a new system Now Gerken and other top law school leaders are focusing on how to help students pick the right school even as they opt out of the popular rankings system. Students and parents need help to sort through the mega- bytes of data available from multiple sources on schools, education experts agree. "e [U.S. News rankings] exodus has also called attention to the lack of other easy-to-find, reliable informa- tion to help consumers make one of the most consequential and expensive investments in their lives," said John Marcus, writing for education news site e Hechinger Report. "is is an important moment to take a step back and to think about the way forward for legal education," Gerken said at a March 1 event on the topic of the U.S. News revolt at Har- vard Law School. "For too long, we have been cabined by a ranking sys- tem that tries to squeeze what cannot be measured into a system that has an impossibly wide range of institutions inside of it." Gerken pledged to release more data directly to prospective students and work with colleagues at top law schools to create a more transparent and easily compared data set. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was much more blunt at the same Harvard event: "It's time to stop worshiping at the false altar of U.S. News and World Report," Cardona said. "It's time to focus on what truly matters — delivering value and up- ward mobility." "It's not enough to abandon a bro- ken system," said Cardona, a native of Meriden and the former Connecticut state commissioner of education. "e real work is building a better one for everyone." e federal Education Department has already created an alternative to commercial ranking schemes in its College Scorecard website, which al- lows students and parents to compare undergraduate and graduate schools and programs. Professional schools like law, medicine and business need to invest in a similar tool, Cardona said. Diver said that the Yale-led revolt has the potential to at least lead to better and more accessible informa- tion on law schools for prospective students. "What's needed is a credible, not-for-profit program of collecting reasonably reliable data that can then make it possible to readily compare different schools," Diver said. "Some- thing that at least provides single-stop shopping for people who are interest- ed in data about law schools." n Colin Diver, a former law school dean and critic of rankings. Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken. F i n a l R a n k i n g s Yale, UConn and Quinnipiac University law schools have each recently pulled out of the once highly touted U.S. News & World Report rankings of top law schools. Here's how the schools ranked in 2022. #1 Yale Law School #64 UConn School of Law #147-192 tier Quinnipiac University School of Law Colleges raise tuition amid economic pressures, affordability debate By Michelle Tuccitto Sullo W hen students at the state's community colleges learned tuition hikes were a possibil- ity, they marched in protest. Outside Gateway Com- munity College in New Haven, dozens of students and faculty in January demonstrated with signs proclaiming "Raise Grades, Not Tui- tion," and "No tuition hike!" On campus in March, Dontae Wil- liams of New Haven, who is studying social work and psychology at Gateway, said any increase would negatively impact students. "I think they should keep it the way it is," Williams said. Latoya McCrorey of Bristol, who attends Tunxis Community College in Farmington, said via email that any tuition increase would make it harder for students to get an education and better-paying job. She is a parent jug- gling two jobs. "It's very unfair to students who are trying to make a living," she said. Higher education in New Haven, across Connecticut and nationwide is getting more expensive for students looking to boost their careers and earning potential. Most area colleges and universities are raising tuition for the upcoming 2023-24 academic year, or are contem- plating doing so, pointing to pressures from an inflationary environment. Higher costs will mean many students graduate with more debt — an issue that has been part of the national conversation with President Biden's proposal to forgive some student loans. Seth Freeman, a professor at Capital Community College in Hartford and union president with e 4Cs SEIU 1973, said students, faculty and staff have been involved in demonstrations and a petition voicing opposition to tuition increases. "Despite community colleges being the most affordable option, the costs of tuition still are a barrier for students to attend college, and raising tuition only raises that barrier," he said. In October, the Board of Regents ap- proved a 3% increase in tuition and fee rates next academic year for the state's four public universities. at includes Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, along with Central, Eastern and Western Connecticut state universities. At Southern, annual undergraduate tuition and fees will go up from $12,438 this year to $12,828 in 2023-24. e board delayed taking any action on tuition for state community colleges and Charter Oak State College, to see what funding can be obtained from the legislature. More than 73% of the community college system's budget comes from state appropriations, rather than tuition or fees, according to Ann Harrison, marketing and communications chief of staff for Connecticut State Community Bill Guerrero, vice president for finance and chief financial officer for the University of Bridgeport, where tuition will remain flat in the upcoming 2023-24 academic year. PHOTO | GARY LEWIS

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