“Tuition has gone up. College presidents’ salaries have gone up, and endowments continue to go up and up,” said Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in a Senate Finance Committee statement. “We need to start seeing tuition relief for families go up just as fast.” Grassley expressed support for Congress’ recent movement demanding institutions of higher learning to rely more on endowments, thus allowing greater student financial aid packages.

Brown University of Rhode Island is the latest school to modify their budget to make aid more available.

With an upcoming 3.9 percent tuition increase, one year of schooling at Brown will set an undergraduate student back almost $37,000, with an additional $10,000 for room and board.

The 2008-2009 financial aid plans, unveiled on Feb. 23, eliminate tuition for students whose parents earn less than $60,000 annually.

Middle-income families will also receive aid; students whose parents earn less than $100,000 annually will have all of their student loans covered by grants.

A program is also underway to allot additional stipends to Brown graduate students.

“Since 2001, Brown has made financial aid for our students one of our highest priorities,” said Brown President Ruth Simmons in a university press release. “Today, we take another major step forward to ensure that our nation’s best students from lower- and middle-income families can attend Brown and graduate without the enormous burden of college debt.”

Brown is following the footsteps of several Ivy League and other prestigious institutions. Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Stanford all have similar programs.

The Stanford financial aid package omits tuition costs for families with an income below $100,000 and also eliminates room and board costs for families below $60,000.

“Everyone deserves the right to a college education and being able to go to an Ivy League free of charge would be wonderful,” said junior Marion Jasin.

“We heard very clearly from our parents, especially parents that considered themselves middle-income, that the amount we expected from them was very difficult,” said Stanford Director of Financial Aid Karen Cooper to The New York Times.

While some of the renovations to financial aid packages come from a desire to make colleges more affordable to lower-income families, Congressional influence is responsible for a majority of the changes.

University fundraising records were broken in 2007 with over $30 billion in donations raised nationally.

Recently, Congress has begun to critique universities like Harvard, who with almost $35 billion in endowments continues to increase tuition without increasing financial aid.

Legislation requiring universities to spend at least 5 percent of their endowment is currently being debated in Congress, but many institutions are developing programs beforehand.

“I hope we’re seeing a trend and a shift in thinking. Spending a little more on students won’t break the bank for well-funded schools,” Grassley said to The New York Times.

“Education is very important in America and I think Congress, in this situation, isn’t trying to punish rich schools but is trying to give an opportunity to students,” Jasin said.

While the financial aid frontrunners are Ivy League institutions, other colleges are offering more assistance to lower-income families.

But creating large financial aid packages is incredibly costly to the institutions themselves. Brown’s financial aid budget will increase 20 percent this year to almost $70 million.

Such an expense is not possible for many schools with smaller endowments and budgets.

“Guilford College’s endowment is simply not large enough to be able to offer more institutional aid than we currently offer,” said Chair of the Budget Committee Heather Hayton in an e-mail interview.

Guilford’s endowment is approximately $75 million and can only support 10 percent of the annual financial aid budget; 90 percent of student aid is funded by the annual operating budget.

The recently approved 2008-2009 Guilford College budget includes a tuition increase but no plans for such large financial aid packages.

“Constraining financial aid increases to below the percentage increase in our tuition and fees, while meeting enrollment goals, has been a major accomplishment,” states the Recommended Budget for 2008-2009 document. “Managing future increases in financial aid will be tricky as we also try to continue to grow enrollment.”

Despite a limited budget and endowment, Guilford offers a 39.5 percent discount rate.

“We currently give back to students (and) families an average of almost 40 cents for every dollar of tuition (and) fees revenue we bring in,” Hayton said.

As Congressional pressure and record-breaking fundraising continue, it is likely that financial aid programs will expand nationwide.