Financial Aid Packages Threaten Cornell Athletics
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This is the first part of a three-part series in which The Sun explores Cornell’s difficulties in athletic recruiting because of non-competitive financial aid packages.
One Cornell recruit faced the decision of a lifetime: come to one of the top athletic programs in the country and pay full tuition, or go to a competing Ivy League school, with a program of lesser athletic status, and pay half the price. The decision was easy: the recruit chose not to pay.
Cornell is losing athletic recruits to other Ivies at a record rate, primarily due to large discrepancies in financial aid, according to information obtained by The Sun. Cornell coaches and Director of Athletics Andy Noel confirmed an abnormal, widespread loss of recruits in this year’s class, and that non-competitive financial aid packages compared to all the Ivies — not just Harvard, Yale or Princeton — appeared to be the biggest reason.
A number of cases across men’s and women’s teams were confirmed where differences in aid packages between Cornell and other Ivies amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per year. Noel stated that the information obtained by The Sun was not a series of atypical cases, and that significant discrepancies have come up across a majority of Cornell’s 36 athletics teams this year.
“This is a problem that’s not isolated to specific sports,” Noel said. “Without a doubt, there are multiple situations across multiple teams where recruits are being offered financial aid packages at other Ivies that are not allowable by our policies.”
Coaches, directors of athletics and student-athletes contacted by The Sun across the league unanimously agreed that financial aid is among the most important components in attracting recruits. Most agreed it is by far the most important factor.
“Among athletes looking at Ivies, there is no question that the level of financial aid offered and the way it is packaged makes a significant difference in college choice,” said Noel, a 30-year veteran of the Ivy League as a coach and administrator. “The financial aid package is the most significant variable in the recruitment of top candidates.”
In all, 12 of the 31 Cornell head coaches were interviewed, and all but three said they are experiencing a problem recruiting athletes competitively against the other Ivies, especially Harvard, Yale and Princeton, because of differences in financial aid packaging. The few that declined did not disagree a problem existed. Two claimed to not seek recruits also being pursued by other Ancient Eight schools, while one agreed but had not experienced it in his program yet.
“It’s not what has happened so far, it’s what is going to happen,” said wrestling head coach Rob Koll, an Ivy coach since 1989. “And, you know, it doesn’t need to be a floodgate where you’re losing five athletes a year: it could be one top recruit a year over four years, and that’s the difference of first and third in the Ivies, or fifth. It can be very subtle.”
Ivy Problem, Not Just Cornell
Although Cornell may be losing out to every other Ivy school in the battle for financial aid and recruiting, that doesn’t mean the other Ivies aren’t losing out as well.
Across the league, a fear has arisen in coaches and Athletic Directors that financial aid packages for recruits at Harvard, Yale and Princeton have improved so dramatically that a competitive imbalance will soon exist in the Ivy League — a violation of the Ivy League Statement of Principles.
With endowments that dwarf the rest of the league’s, Harvard, Yale and Princeton not only can offer more aid than other Ivies, they can offer it with fewer strings attached — such as no work study or loans — and to students in far broader income brackets. This allows them to attract recruits more effectively from other Ivies or even scholarship schools.
Many coaches noted that these changes in aid packages have been occurring slowly over the years, but became far more drastic in the past year as the financial aid offerings improved.
“How they’re packaging all their students — not just their athletes — has drastically changed in the last two to three years,” said men’s hockey coach Mike Schafer ’86. “In the last two or three years, we’ve lost kids who obviously received better financial aid packages to other Ivy League institutions. It’s a new phenomenon for everybody involved, and it’s something we’re trying to adjust to and get more information on.”
“We have numerous cases [of recruits now being lost due to far superior financial aid at other Ivies] and they spread the gamut of all sports,” said Penn Director of Athletics Steve Bilsky. “There’s no trend that I see that indicates it’s being done as a strategy [for specific sports].”
Directors of Athletics at other Ivy schools declined to comment or did not return calls made by The Sun.
In order to try to overcome the competitive imbalance, Noel believes that other Ivy schools are finding creative ways within Ivy policy to catch up to Harvard, Yale and Princeton temporarily, while Cornell — which has not — is being left behind.
“This challenge is not just isolated to candidates only recruited by Harvard, Yale and Princeton. We are noticing that other Ivy schools are adjusting their packages in order to compete,” Noel said, noting that Cornell had not adjusted yet. “There is no other conference of which I’m aware where the financial aid packaging is so divergent. … It’s very important that the league recognize this as an element that directly undermines the competitive balance within Ivy League athletics.”
Noel also stressed that he believes Cornell will find a way to catch up so it can remain competitive.
Ivy League Executive Director Jeff Orleans, although declining to comment on the current state of the problem, believes that drastic variation in financial aid packages that Ivy League schools now offer could create a competitive imbalance in the conference.
“It’s fair to say that folks who care about Ivy athletics are asking if there will be effects in competitive balance from the current round of changes,” Orleans said. “I certainly feel that it’s a discussion we need to begin.”
Yesterday, the Ivy league announced Orleans’ retirement, effective June, 2009.
Despite a growing and fairly widespread fear that has been reported in other newspapers around the Ivy League, not everyone believes that financial aid will lead to a competitive imbalance. Some want to see where the next few years of recruits go and how teams fair before declaring that a problem exists.
For Bilsky and many at Cornell, they believe by then it will already be far too late.
“Imagine what would happen … if you could go to Harvard for free, but everywhere else you have to pay,” Bilsky said. “It’s not very difficult to realize that would [destroy the league’s balance].”
Ranging Examples
Examples of non-competitive Cornell financial aid packages come from across men’s and women’s sports, from all different teams and in competition with financial aid packages from across the Ivies.
One of the most successful men’s team coaches at Cornell in recent years, who asked to remain anonymous, explained how a top-ranked recruit wanted to apply to Cornell. The recruit received significantly lower aid at Cornell, however, and decided to look at his second-choice Ivies with better financial aid.
“Cornell’s looking at the family incomes was drastically different than both Columbia and Penn’s, making Columbia $20,000 and Penn $30,000 better, per year, which, unfortunately, makes it a very easy decision on which place you should go, regardless of how much you love it,” the coach said. “For the first time … it has gotten to the point in our recruiting that I’m getting kids that are coming and saying ‘gee coach, I love Cornell, I think you’re the right coach and I think your program will fit me the best, but I just can’t afford it.’ I think that’s a legitimate gripe.”
In another case, a women’s team coach, who sought anonymity out of fear of punishment from the University, was recruiting a student-athlete who ranked among the best in North America and declared Cornell as her top-choice school. Upon seeing another Ivy’s financial aid package though, after having spent a great deal of time lauding Cornell, the recruit decided to go to the other school.
“I’ve had recruits tell me they wanted to come to Cornell, but their financial aid packages at the other Ivy League schools were much better, and that they couldn’t justify — even though they wanted to come to Cornell — the difference in the financial situation for them to come to Cornell,” said the coach, who is looking to rebuild his program. “This is the year that we really wanted to back that [last recruiting] class up, and have a strong foundation. Now we’re losing some big kids because of finances. … Right now, compared some of the other Ivy League schools, we are at a competitive disadvantage because of financial aid.”
These two instances are a microcosm of the problem: the programs being affected may be doing well or may be rebuilding, they may be big or small, or men’s or women’s teams. But the losses in recruits that coaches are experiencing due to financial aid won’t be felt for another few years, if not more. Put into perspective, the recent success of athletics teams — such as Cornell men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling and hockey — is a result of recruiting from 2003-07.
Women’s lacrosse head coach Jennifer Graap ’86 stated she feels awkward telling recruits to look at the Princeton Financial Aid Estimator website. She wondered, “Why doesn’t Cornell offer that?”
“Even with the financial incentive of in-state tuition, we’re still losing out,” she said. “We’re still losing [recruits] to Penn … Dartmouth.”
Graap has also lost recruits to Harvard and Princeton strictly because of financial aid, and it was the Princeton case that stuck out the most.
“[This athlete] wanted in-state option at Cornell. … Their package was still better to go to Princeton than it was to be in-state coming to Cornell,” she said. “So [Princeton] already had to cover that gap of, say, $13 to $15 thousand. Not only did [it] cover that gap, it was cheaper to go to Princeton. So they covered it, and gave an extra $3 to $4 thousand.”
Football head coach Jim Knowles ’87 has experienced a number of issues when going up against other Ivy League schools. Knowles, in his first year in charge of Cornell football, took the team from last place to the top-half of the league for the first time in conference history. But he has found financial aid to be severely limiting his ability to recruit against other Ivy schools.
“To me, football is the one place where everybody wants to win. So, football can be a great window to what’s happening,” Knowles said. “[Our packages] are consistently beat by three-quarters of the others [beyond Harvard, Yale and Princeton].”
In one recent example, a “top-priority football recruit” was estimated as having no need at Cornell, but roughly $25 thousand of need, per year, at an Ivy League competitor. The recruit eventually decided not to apply to Cornell.
“Have we lost a couple kids? Yeah, we’ve lost a couple kids because of better financial aid packages,” said Schafer, the winningest coach in Cornell men’s hockey history. “I know that we’ve lost battles to Harvard, Dartmouth … specifically Harvard, we’ve lost a couple battles with financial aid.”
In another instance, men’s swimming head coach Joe Lucia, a 21-year veteran of the Ancient Eight, detailed how a recruit emailed him saying he would not even consider Cornell because he got a much better financial aid read at Harvard. Lucia’s fear, however, is not that he will lose recruits being sought by Harvard.
“I’m concerned about Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth,” Lucia said. “Now, if they’re going to match, and be giving much better financial aid, we’re going to really have trouble competing with them, because those are our main competitors.”
PART 2: To read the second part of the series CLICK HERE.
Why pay to recruit athletes?
I am amazed and disappointed to read that this issue warrants a three part article. Cornell is an academic university -- athletics are an added perk for students, not a reason to attend our fine university. Why should we be concerned that Cornell is losing recruited athletes because of non-competitive financial aid packages? Is this much concern and effort going into recruiting students who excel in other fields? Would we be concerned if an English major decided to go to Princeton because of a better aid package?
I was dismayed by athletic recruiting practices 20 years ago when I attended CU - under qualified student-athletes, 'hired' to fill out a lineup. I rejoice to learn that Cornell has gotten smarter, and is no longer compromising its standards to bribe athletes to attend! Let Princeton waste its endowment on athletes. While other Ivys pay for a potential star football player for their mediocre teams, let Cornell go after the future Nobel Prize winning physicist!
What many don't seem to
What many don't seem to recognize is that this is not just a problem with athletes. With their new policies, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, are able to provide more aid in the form of grants rather than loans, to all applicants. If this continues then our ability to get that future Nobel Prize winner will be affected as much as the athlete. It also is filtering down to institutions a level below the Ivy League. It's hard to know how to solve this. The endowments at those three institutions are so far ahead of us (based upon a per student basis), that currently there is no way we can give the same package to any student. This needs to be discussed by everyone in the university community. All students and alums need to asses their ability to help in this area.
Unfortunately, the article focuses on athletes
Someone should notify the Sun's staff writers so that they can change the focus of the article. Why dilute the issue by turning it into a discussion of funding athletes?
More fund raising isn't the solution. Cornell isn't going to match the biggest endowments. That's a brute force solution. If Cornell wants to attract the best and brightest, it can focus on them, and easily compete. I would rather have 10 truly superior students than 1000 modestly talented ones. I learned this in business. Those businesses that simply hire armies of clones stay mediocre while the Googles of the world search far and wide for the *best* they can find then provide an atmosphere in which they flourish.
Cornell may never be ready for this. As an institution "where any person can find instruction in any study", it is a place where fair and equal treatment have deep roots. To excel, at times we must be unfair and unequal. If we wish to compete with other schools for top students, we must take a different approach and fight on our terms. Cornell is an incredible institution and it should be able to capture the hearts and minds of the finest.
The piece focuses on athletes because...
Discussing recruitment of athletes doesn't dilute this issue at all. Intercollegiate athletics are much more visible and the results of its recruitment are much more immediate than in any other discipline in which the University currently excels. A highly rated swimming recruit can pay almost immediate dividends for Cornell, while a gifted mathematician or scientist may not until several years after graduation.
Furthermore, athletics plays a critical publicity role in the life of any major university. In the spring of 2003, when the hockey team reached the Frozen Four, the campus instantly united, student morale substantially rose. Same thing as when the lacrosse team won its first 15 games last year. That is the type of feeling that contributes to higher alumni giving rates and it's the type of reputation that contributes to attracting a wide spectrum of outstanding applicants. Strong athletic programs most certainly have benefited both Cornell and its Ivy Group peers in the past.
As alums, we all want Cornell to attract the very best in every walk of life. Inability to compete with the financial aid packages offered by peer institutions is going to injure Cornell's ability to attract the best everywhere, not just in athletics.
Great reporting, Josh. Looking forward to more.
Cornell simply needs to put
Cornell simply needs to put excuses aside and prioritize getting the best students it can. Expensive buildings and facilities are worthless without top people, and so financial aid and faculty salaries should always be given top priority by far.
Aid Packages for Athletes
This is absolutely an issue facing the University as a whole...students, student-athletes, faculty. The one difference about the student-athlete that is unique is that, for better or for worse, successful athletic teams generate more money for a school's coffers than many academic accomplishments. The increased inflow not only goes to athletics, but for a University as a whole.
It's one thing to lose a student because s/he will not succeed academically at a University, it's another to lose one because the prospective participant cannot afford to come. For all of the Ivies, the calculation is need based, and Cornell can't support the complete need with grants (without the inclusion of loans or work/study) compared to some of our better endowed Ivy cousins. With Cornell being the having the largest undergraduate Ivy population by far, the ratio of endowment/student is a lot lower than the other Ivies. Rather than look at this article merely as a case for student-athletes to get (additional?) preferential treatment somehow, it should be referenced as a microcosm of the larger issue to see if we in the Cornell community can come up with strategies to continue truly to compete for the best talent (academically, artistically and athletically). It behooves all of us to ensure the University's standing among the finest in the world maintains itself for years to come.
Athletics are a cost to the university, not a revenue
It is a complete myth that athletics generate revenue for Cornell or other universities. The overwhelming majority of athletic departments run large deficits.
Recruit top students, not top athletes
Cornell's priority should be to recruit top faculty and students, not athletes. The quality of a university is not measured by the performance of the football team.
While we all agree that the
While we all agree that the University's priority should be recruiting across-the-board excellence in both faculty and students, we are talking about aid packages for qualified students who happen to be athletes. As such, they would enhance the overall environment of the University. In addition, you should not underestimate the value of a successful athletic program (even at the Ivy level) in increasing alumni pride and subsequent financial support, which benefits the entire Cornell community.
For the purpose of my
For the purpose of my argument, let's assume that these student-athletes are "qualified" or that they would have been admitted based on their academic merits alone and without the affirmative action that characterizes the athletic recruitment process. The question still remains: WHY are we wooing them? Other qualified students receive financial aid or, if they do not meet the requirements for financial assistance, receive nothing. Why are we giving student-athletes an increase in financial support just for being here? We are an academic institution; not an athletic one. Special incentives and financial assistance should aim at increasing our academic reputation not at having a great football team that probably will not send one individual to the NFL.
I would also beg to differ that athletics increase school morale and financial support. Whatever "subsequent financial support" comes from athletic programs probably goes right BACK to the athletic departments, i.e. hockey alums give back to the hockey teams and basketball alums help finance the basketball team. For a Senior like myself who has not attended ONE hockey game and attended ONE basketball game by mistake, I find it hard to see how that "subsequent financial support" affects Cornell as a whole. My morale does not come from having a great hockey time; it comes from being able to put Cornell on my resume and knowing that that says a lot about my academic capabilities.
Give our Big Red Atheletes more credit than that...
I agree with you that Cornell is an academic institution first and foremost and our top future scholars should not be at a disadvantage or shunned from admission on the basis of their athletic potential...that being said I would not be quick to dismiss the impact that our athletes have on campus morale. Being a recent grad, I don't find myself smiling thinking back on the nights my face was buried in a book until the early morning hours...I am proud that Cornell produces exceptionally WELL-ROUNDED people and have had many great times celebrating our institution's athletic success. While athletes should not be given preferential treatment, they certainly deserve more credit than you are giving them.
Where's the need?
Less than 50% of Cornell's student body is on financial aid. What this author failed to investigate is whether these student athletes who are being recruited are actually in need of financial aid- is Cornell to blame for offering a smaller financial incentive if these students don't have a legitimate need for aid in the first place? Or are the nice packages just a recruitment tool? I am happy to consider the idea that Cornell is distributing the wealth to other students who have a legitimate need and who contribute to the intellectual life of this university.
Let's be clear here: All
Let's be clear here: All financial aid packages are calculated the same, regardless of student involvement in athletics, student government, performance groups, etc. Cornell is losing common admits to other schools due to financial aid packages, and the one place where this trend manifests itself the most is among student-athletes who happen to hotly recruited across all of the Ivies.
Also, please realize there are strict regulations surrounding the recruitment and acceptance of athletes in the Ivy League. All athletes need to score above a minimum threshold on an 'academic index', and the average academic index for recruited athletes as a whole can be no less than one standard deviation below the entire academic index for the entering class.
Newsweek Story
http://www.newsweek.com/id/129389
Newsweek weighs in on part of this issue, asking whether or not Ivies could compete for a national title in basketball or any of the major college sports, given their endowments.