While some Ivy League universities scramble to cut corners to protect their precious endowments, others are laughing in the face of the on-going global economic meltdown by exceeding their budgetary costs for the sake of the greater good.

Princeton, for example, issued a statement this week that the Recession may impact University spending. However, the Financial Aid Office announced shortly thereafter that it had seen a $3-4 million increase in financial aid requests, but it would meet the demand – no questions asked.

The Daily Princetonian reports:

President Tilghman announced at a faculty meeting last Monday that the increase in financial aid demand would be $2.8 million, but Tuesday’s statement indicates that figure has been revised upward. It is unclear if the additional demand will rise even further.

 
The requests come at a time of historic economic crisis, which has led “a very significant number of students ... to let us know that the financial circumstances of their families have changed,” President Tilghman said in an interview on Sunday, before the demand estimates had increased.

[…] The specific sources of pressure on the financial aid system depend on individual family situations. “The additional funding is going to assist both a larger number of students on aid than anticipated, and to meet increased needs for aid families who have experienced job loss, reduced incomes, and other financial difficulties,” Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Robin Moscato said in an e-mail.

Kudos to Princeton for willingly incurring additional costs during an economic crisis to help their students.

Now, if only that other top-tiered Ivy would do the same for its employees…