Richard Vedder on Lowering College Tuition

Richard Vedder recently contributed to The New York Times "Room for Debate" forum on the recently announced move by the University of the South (also known as Sewanee) to cut their published tuition by 10% (an absolute reduction in price by nearly $5,000. Here's a little snippet:

This will be a great test of two rival perspectives. The traditional view is that students are not terribly price conscious, and, indeed, increasing tuition sometimes even raises enrollments because of perceived improvements in school quality. The alternative view, embraced by Sewanee, is that increasingly students, even those from prosperous families (only 12 percent of Sewanee students are on Pell Grants), are becoming sensitive to rising prices.