TOW #4: How the Market Can Rein in Tuition Costs (Dave Girouard)

Dave Girouard has many years of experience in business and economics, serving as President of Google Enterprise and currently running the crowd-funding business Upstart. With such experience with money, Girouard takes a look at the rising tuition of many colleges, and explains the "pay it forward theory" as a better alternative to standard tuition, where alumni pay a percent of their salaries to their alma mater for several years or decades. Tuition costs have increased to 500% of what they were in 1985 (Notte). This trend has popularized student loans, of which $1.2 trillion defaults. To combat this, Oregon state universities have changed their tuition policies, so that students pay 3% of their tuition for the first 20 years after they graduate. Girouard defends this policy and tries to convince the general public (and perhaps future college students) that this method needs some improvement, but can be a much more practical approach to paying for college. Girouard begins by establishing the context of his argument, explaining how high current tuitions are how prevalent student loan debt is. He then describes the "Pay It Forward, Pay It Back" method that Oregon State has employed and its credibility via the influential people (two senators) who support the plan. This serves to bias the audience by appealing to ethos before Girouard even introduces his thesis. He argues that the program needs some tweaking, but first concedes to the benefits of the plan: it's always affordable and high-earners will do more to support their school. He then proposes a rhetorical question that is not necessarily effective, but introduces his opinion in style. The rest of the essay is an appeal to logos, beginning with a comparison of present methods and "paying it forward." For example, he explains that students today must pick high-earning majors because they will create jobs that can pay off the lones. By taking a small percentage of a salary, students in the future will have no encouragement to pursue those high-earning majors. Girouard concludes his essay with several rhetorical questions, each of which describe his proposed modifications to the "pay it forward plan." Overall, I think the essay was well-argued and accomplished his purpose. Girouard's use of concession and logic do prove his point, and the use of rhetorical questions was interesting. He used economic jargon that I could not really follow, so I think he should have considered a more general audience.



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