Balance Sheet

The chief concern on most campuses is still money. A month ago, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education reported that for most colleges rigorous cost cutting had arrested a slide toward bankruptcy (TIME, April 23). The commission also added a warning that the stays may be temporary. Since then, there have been additional data from the financial front that spell good tidings for professors and administrators but distinctly bad news for parents:

> The American Association of University Professors reported that for the first time in three years, faculty salaries rose faster than the cost of living. Its survey of 1,179 colleges and universities found that salaries in 1972-73 rose 4.1% over the previous year while, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of living went up 3.3%. Still, the professors did not fare as well as the average American, whose per capita income rose 7.7% last year. The survey disclosed that the best-paid faculty members were at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where the average professor is paid $30,303 in salary and fringe benefits for nine months' work; the New School for Social Research, where the average is $25,133; and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where it is $24,371. Harvard, which once ranked first, dropped to sixth place ($23,688).

>The Council for Financial Aid to Education reported that private gifts to colleges and universities totaled a record $2.02 billion last year, up 8.6% from 1971. The reason: foundations increased their contributions by 25%, to $427 million. Harvard, which usually tops the list of beneficiaries, received $46.5 million last year. But it was edged out of first place by Emory, which reported gifts of $46.9 million, including two anonymous foundation grants totaling more than $30 million.

>Each year it costs more to go to college, and 1973-74 will be no exception. The U.S. Office of Education estimates that the average cost of a year's tuition, room and board--not including other costs, such as books, clothing and entertainment--will go up about 6% next fall, to $3,281 at private campuses and $ 1,492 at public. The Ivy League and other private East Coast schools are still the most expensive. Columbia warns its students to expect to pay $5,450 for tuition, room and board next year, while Harvard and Bennington will charge $5,400.

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