568 Group - History

History

In response to several prestigious colleges and universities holding "Overlap Meetings" to set similar tuition and financial aid levels, the Justice Department began an antitrust investigation in 1989 and in 1991 filed an Sherman Antitrust Act suit against 57 colleges and universities. While the Ivy League institutions settled, MIT contested the charges on the grounds that the practice was not anticompetitive because it prevented bidding wars over promising students from consuming funds for need-based scholarships and ensured the availability of aid for the greatest number of students. MIT ultimately prevailed when the Justice Department settled the case in 1994.

In 1994, Congress passed the Improving America's Schools Act. Section 568 of this Act that expands upon the issues in the MIT settlement. Section 568 states that is not unlawful under the anti-trust laws for two or more need-blind institutions to agree or attempt to agree:

  1. to award financial aid only on the basis of need;
  2. to use common principles of analysis for determining need;
  3. to use a common aid application form; and
  4. to engage in a one-time exchange of certain pre-award data of commonly admitted financial aid students.

The amendment specifically prohibits the sharing of any information on the amount or terms of any prospective, individual aid award and makes clear that the exemption does not apply to the awarding of federal financial aid.

Read more about this topic:  568 Group

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    “History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    “It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
    —Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    “It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
    —Henry James (1843–1916)