14A
STYLE/The Charlotte Post
Thursday October 2, 1997
Memorials blossom
Continued from 16A
ful letters from people who have
seen the site and told me how
inspired they were by his story,”
said Ranallo. “I’m touched deeply
that people take the time to read
about him.”
A page designed and placed on
the Virtual Memorials site is free.
Others charge from $10 a year at
Garden of Remembrance to $995
for a complete multimedia pack
age - photographs, audio, video,
tributes - at Perpetual
Memorials.
More than 240 memorials have
been added to Virtual Memorials
since Sharon Mnich started the
site last September with pages
dedicated to her deceased grand
parents and a close friend.
“It’s really a celebration of Ufe.
Our lives are so much more than
the little dash between two num
bers on a tombstone,” said Mnich
of Woodstock, Ga., a 29-year-old
former travel agent.
Mnich has spent about $2,000,
mostly on computer hardware, to
maintain the site from her subur
ban Atlanta home. She gets about
six requests a week.
“I get tears almost every single
night doing it,” said Mnich, sit
ting at her workstation with a
box of tissue nearby. “But the
rewards are so wonderful when
people e-mail back and say this is
so precious to them, now they
have somewhere to go and
remember someone that’s not a
cemetery.”
Similar sites are expected to
proliferate as people look to tech
nology as a means of immortaliz
ing themselves, Delaney said.
“I think that everybody just
about hopes for some level of
immortahty and everyone craves
their 15 minutes of fame,”
Delaney said. “This is their way to
get it.”
The address for Virtual
Memorials is http:l Iwww.virtu-
al-memorials.com.
World Gardens’ is
http:! /www.worldgardens.com.
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High cost of education
By Robert Greene
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Increases of 5
percent this year for tuition and
most room and board added hvm-
dreds of dollars to the cost of col
lege, an expense that has steadily
outgrown other consumer prices
since 1980.
The increases pushed average
tuition past $3,100 and room and
board to near $4,400 at public
four-year institutions, the College
Board reported Wednesday. At
private four-year colleges and uni
versities, average tuition now
nears $13,670 and room and
board, $4,400.
That means parents and stu
dents are paying on average $136
more for tuition this year and
$194 more for room and board at
public colleges and universities.
They're paying $670 more for
tuition and $186 more for room
and board at private schools.
The increases for 1997-1998
come amid growing pressure to
curb tuition, which has nearly
doubled since 1980. Family
income has grown less than 10
percent.
A congressionally created panel
is looking into the issue. Parents
have organized the College
Parents of America to seek more
clout.
“It’s horrifying,” said Allison
Foster of Newport News, Va.
Daughter Meghan is a senior in
high school; daughter Caitlyn is
14.
Virginia has frozen tmtion at its
state universities, but the family
is stiU looking for better deals in
North Carolina and South
Carolina.
Although decrying a fall in state
and federal support for higher
education, a special panel of edu
cators and others reported this
year that colleges and universi
ties must restructure and become
more businesslike.
The University of Florida has
done that, requiring teachers and
colleges to measure their produc
tivity and quality. Others, includ
ing Michigan State University,
have pledged to hold tuition
increases at or below inflation.
But colleges are also rushing to
meet the demands of the digital
generation for Internet access and
other high technology, said Greg
J. Baroni, managing partner for
the higher education practice at
KPMG Peat Marwick, the
accounting and consulting compa
ny
“A lot of them are racing against
the technology time bomb,” he
said. Like the government, they
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must reprogram or replace com
puters so they don't go haywire in
2000.
At the same time, few have
overhauled their organizations to
make them more efficient, he
said. A report this year by the
Commission on National
Investment in Higher Education
said organization and manage
ment have changed little since the
19th century.
The high-end tuition figures
nonetheless distort the picture,
said Donald M. Stewart, presi
dent of the College Board, an
association of colleges, schools,
universities and other organiza
tions.
More than half the undergradu
ates at four-year institutions pay
less than $4,000 for tuition and
fees.
“For most Americans, college is
stfll accessible - especially in light
of financial aid currently avail
able,” he said.
The board said a record $55 bil-
hon in financial aid was available
in 1996-1997, the most recent
year for data. That's up from $32
billion in inflation-adjusted dol
lars nearly a decade earher.
But enrollments have increased
and less of the money is available
in grants that aid the neediest.
Aid per student has grown at half
the rate of tuition, the board esti
mates.
Congress is about to increase
the maximum Pell grant from
$2,700 to $3,000 - too little, critics
say, to keep up with costs.
Congress also approved President
Clinton’s request for $1,500 in
yearly tuition tax credits.
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