Most Brandeis students and their parents are acutely aware of the cost of a Brandeis degree, and the struggles that come with paying for one. "Soon, only the financial elite will be able to consider Brandeis," one parent wrote recently on the Justice's Web site. "At that point, a new Brandeis will have to be created to fulfill the ideals of inclusion that gave rise to the present institution."If Brandeis' annual costs increase at the current pace, a freshman who enters Brandeis in September 2007 will receive bills totaling about $200,939 for tuition, fees, room and board over four years, not including textbooks and other "extras." A high school junior hoping to arrive on campus in September 2008 will receive bills for about $210,986, plus extras. Together with healthcare, the high cost of a degree at a private college has become one of America's greatest challenges.

Princeton University recently announced it will hold tuition steady for the 2007-2008 school year (It is still raising costs of room and board.). According to the Associated Press, "Princeton's move will likely prompt rival colleges to consider similar moves .... Princeton has been at the cutting edge of a number of bold initiatives in recent years."

Will Brandeis make an effort to follow suit? If the University implements its usual increases it will cost more to attend Brandeis in September than Princeton. Will we now be told that, because Brandeis can get away with charging more than Princeton, a Brandeis degree must be better?

When I first raised the issue with University President Jehuda Reinharz last June, he responded: "The actual cost to the University to educate each undergraduate student is approximately $55,000 .... The cost of private higher education is high, and it does indeed reflect a choice, the value of which must ultimately be decided by the student and his or her family." But as Paul Trusten '73 wrote on the Justice's Web site: "It is long past time for the Nader organization and the Consumers' Union to analyze the elements of college tuition and to guide people to get their money's worth from this cow that I have long since considered to be no longer sacred."

When I again wrote to the president asking him to follow Princeton's lead, his executive assistant John Hose replied, "The $200,000+ figure is only accurate for students receiving no financial aid whatsoever. However ... over 60 percent of undergraduates receive merit- or need-based scholarship or grant aid, for which the University expends just under $40 million." But that leaves, by my count, at least 1000-maybe as many as 1,300-current students who are being billed the full tuition. Hose seems to suggest that because we are "only" a thousand or so, we don't count in the eyes of the administration.

University presidents love to tell us that the actual cost of running the institution is more than what they charge students, but at the same time, Brandeis is quick to boast about its record fundraising and other revenue-raising activities. Parents need to be shown that the administration is doing everything possible to control costs, that there is no waste on campus and that salaries-including those of administrators-are not inflated. How about the University's chief financial officer writing to students and parents to tell us, honestly and forthrightly, what he is doing to address the escalating cost of a Brandeis bachelor's degree? I thought universities were meant to be non-profit entities with a pedagogical mission, not big businesses. A gesture from the administration might raise our spirits.

The writer is the father of a member of the Class of 2008.