Lawsuit Claims US Colleges Working Together to Limit Financial Aid

Lawsuit¹ Claims US Colleges Working Together to Limit Financial Aid

Some of the most competitive universities in the United States are facing a lawsuit, accused of violating an important business law.

Sixteen schools, including Yale University, Notre Dame² University, Georgetown University, and Columbia University are accused of working together to hold back financial aid from students.

The lawsuit centers on universities that are part of the 568 Presidents Group. That is a group of colleges that were permitted to work together to keep common financial aid rules.

The lawsuit, however, calls the schools a "cartel." A cartel has a negative meaning. It is used to describe an illegal group that works together to make more money. Criminal organizations like drug gangs are often called cartels.

Lawyers for five students filed the lawsuit on January 9. The students represent a group of 170,000 who, the lawsuit claims, paid too much for college since 2003.

The lawsuit addresses two issues. The first is that the schools unfairly worked together to decide how much money would be offered to needy³ students.

The second is that the schools did not always choose the best students. The schools chose students for reasons such as their ability to pay the full price of college.

Universities will often accept the best students and then make a list of second-place students that may be accepted later. The decisions made about students on that list may be an important part of the lawsuit.

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel writes about higher education for The Washington Post. She said the universities that chose students based on their ability to pay may have broken what is known as anti-trust law.

"This lawsuit is saying ‘well, if these schools are engaging wealthy students in the ways in which we are showing you they are, then they're not need-blind and therefore they are violating this statute⁴ and therefore violating anti-trust laws.'"

Anti-trust laws are regulations that support competition in the marketplace. The laws do not permit companies, or universities in this case, to agree to sell goods at the same price.

The students who filed the case say the universities worked together to "eliminate price competition."

The U.S. government allowed the 568 Presidents Group to work together to create systems to award money to students in need. In return, the universities agreed to accept students without first looking at their ability to pay. The lawsuit claims the universities violated this agreement.

The lawyers also claim that some universities limited the amount of money given to needy students by keeping places open for the children of wealthy donors⁵ or graduates who could pay the full cost. The universities saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

The lawsuit represents both students and parents who paid tuition.

Spokespeople from several universities said their schools plan to defend themselves. They are following the law, they say.

International students cannot receive financial aid from the U.S. government, but some do receive money from the universities who want to have a diverse student group.

The lawsuit asks for a jury trial, a breakup of the 568 group, and that schools return money to students who were affected⁶ by the actions of the universities.

Peter McDonough is Vice⁷ President at the American Council of Education. It is a group that works with 2,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. In a conversation with The New York Times, he said he does not think the schools will turn out to be in violation⁸ of the laws. He said he would be surprised to "find that there's fire where this smoke is being sent up today."

Douglas-Gabriel said she thinks the schools will work hard to get the courts to throw out the lawsuit. Its accusations⁹ could be very damaging.

Harvard University is not named in the lawsuit because it is not a member of the 568 Presidents Group. Harvard did not join the group when it formed because the school said it wanted to make more money available to students.

I'm Dan Friedell

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from Reuters.

Do you think students will get some money back from their colleges? Tell us in the Comments Section and visit 51VOA.COM.

Quiz - Lawsuit Claims US Colleges Working Together to Limit Financial Aid

Words in This Story

lawsuit– n. a process by which a court of law makes a decision to end a disagreement between people or organizations

gang – n. a group of criminals

tuition – n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there

engage –v. to give serious attention to someone or something

statute – n. a written law that is formally created by a government

eliminate – v. to remove (something that is not wanted or needed) : to get rid of (something)

diverse – adj. made up of people or things that are different from each other

1 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

2 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

3 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

4 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

5 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

9 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。