Article, CNN, February 25, 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/02/25/yale.protest.ap/index.html 15 students recently staged a sit-in at the Yale University Office of Admissions. Their goal was to increase financial aid awards offered to needy students. They were supported by over one hundred students protesting outside the office. The protest ended peacefully when the police escorted the students out of the building and cited them for trespassing.
The students were specifically asking for the university to reduce the tuition for those with financial aid by half, and to also cover all of the academic expenses of a student whose family made less that $40,000.
The current tuition for a Yale undergraduate is $41,000 per year. Over 40% of the student body receives some form of financial aid, and the average award is approximately $20,000. The protesters demands may have been inspired by the recent decision by Harvard University to fully fund those students whose families made less than $40,000 per year.
A spokesman for Yale's president, Richard Levin, said that the president was currently evaluating the university's financial aid policies and was working towards a more generous solution for students with financial aid.
This protest was loosely linked to a current group of graduate students fighting to begin a teacher's union at the school.
