The previous post (which was published in this morning’s Inside Higher Ed) commented on a recent class action lawsuit claiming that noncustodial parents are being treated unfairly by the requirement that they must report income and assets for many colleges using the CSS Profile to evaluate eligibility for institutional financial aid.
The lawsuit was filed against 40 national universities and the College Board, and alleges that an agreement reached back in 2006 to establish a common methodology for dealing with noncustodial parents was a conspiracy.
Late last week, as that post was in the editing process, I came across a mystery. One of the notes in the court filing (#74) names seven institutions that were almost immediate adopters of the new methodology. What was interesting was that two of the institutions named are not among the defendants in this case, Colgate and the University of Chicago.
Colgate is considered a national liberal arts college rather than a national university, so that explains why it is excluded. Both I and my editor at Inside Higher Ed checked and double-checked the list of schools using the CSS Profile on the College Board website, and Chicago was listed as requiring the Profile but not asking for information from noncustodial parents.
Late Friday afternoon, after I thought the piece was put to bed, I received an email from my editor with interesting news. The CSS Profile list no longer included Chicago, whereas it had just 24-48 hours earlier. Why the sudden disappearance?
I reached out to the University of Chicago to see if there was an explanation, and a spokesman responded that they aren’t sure why the disappearance happened. For at least five years Chicago has only required the FAFSA. I also contacted the College Board but haven’t received a response.
I’m not alleging anything nefarious, but it is odd at best and mysterious at worse.