To the Editor:
Marie Hopkins could not be more correct regarding transfer and RUE aid ("RUEing the aid situation," Nov. 11). I gave up $7,500 a year in academic scholarships when I transferred to Brown. Like all transfers who arrived beginning in the fall of 2003, I receive no financial aid from the University.
RUEs receive a shoestring financial aid budget. Transfers used to, as well. On top of all of the other humiliations bestowed upon transfer students, whether it is housing inequity or almost no financial aid, Brown, under the leadership of President Ruth Simmons, has eliminated all financial aid for transfer students. It is hypocritical to the extreme for Brown to publicly declare that financial aid is improving, because while need-blind aid for incoming first-years has been implemented, financial aid for transfer students has been eliminated entirely.
Transfers are fed up at being ignored, sidelined and brushed aside. The University should put some of its high-minded rhetoric into action, for a change, and actually strive for some financial aid equality among its students. To do any less lowers Brown to the level of nothing more than another corporation striving to best meet its bottom line. Don't be surprised if many bitter future alums conveniently forget to donate to the University because they were discriminated against in the financial aid process while they were students at Brown.
If Brown has any overly troublesome relations with the city of Providence any time in the near future, bear in mind that Mayor David Cicilline '83 was a transfer student.
Michael Thompson '07Nov. 11
