On Sep. 20, news hit our email inboxes that Washington University’s endowment grew by 65% over the past year, now standing at $15.3 billion. Just a week prior, to our delight, WashU rose by two places in the U.S. News & World Report’s National Universities ranking, making a three-way tie for #14 alongside Brown University and Vanderbilt University. 

While these recent developments suggest significant progress at WashU, they come as a direct contrast to WashU’s long-standing position on maintaining a need-aware admissions process. This process takes applicants’ financial situations into account when making admissions decisions, essentially favoring those with greater financial means over those with less economic access. The University cites a lack of earmarked funds in the endowment for financial aid as a reason behind this stance, as Chancellor Emeritus Mark Wrighton stated another $1 billion needs to be endowed for financial aid to become need-blind. The Zetcher family’s recent donation for need-based financial aid is a step in the right direction, and combined with $6 billion more in the bank, the endowment’s limited non-restricted funds now appear to be a mitigating factor in pursuing need-blind admissions. 

Our need-aware admissions are an eyesore on the University and the administration knows it. If equally-ranked Brown University can sustain a need-blind admissions process with an endowment less than a third of WashU’s, then what does that say about our university, which won’t even prioritize it as a goal? Do we really deserve to be ranked 14th in the nation?

There is only one message the WashU administration is sending out by continuing this discriminatory admissions practice: “Our priority is money.” This message is omnipresent, despite all the spin that admissions staff attempt to pull off during campus tours and admissions sessions. It’s not “making sure we provide enough financial aid when you’re accepted” when you simply would have not been accepted because of your economic background. 

Both Chancellor Martin’s commitment to “recruiting the very best individuals regardless of background or previous opportunities” and Undergraduate Admissions’ promise to “continually review our policies and practices to be sure they are as equitable as possible” are moot points as long as the University is need-aware. 

Because of the intentional admission of higher-income applicants, we have one of the wealthiest student bodies in the country, even compared to peer institutions. Our low socioeconomic diversity reverberates across campus, including the social stratification of students by their economic privilege, the difficulty of breaking outside the WashU bubble to embrace the St. Louis community and the poor treatment of the University’s cleaning, dining and maintenance workers. 

The University’s supposed obligations to support equitable policies and bring the best individuals to campus are only performative activism so long as the University actively values wealth in its admissions. 

WashU is at a crossroads — either champion diversity and inclusion or further perpetuate classism and elitism. Unfortunately, the latter festers every day that the University does not establish need-blind admissions. WashU’s motto is Per Veritatem Vis, meaning “Strength Through Truth,” but when are administrators going to strengthen this University by recognizing the truth that a need-aware admissions process is economic discrimination? It’s the bare minimum. 

If you have any feedback on the Forum section as a whole, please leave your thoughts in this form.