The University of Virginia is one of the nation’s top institutions of higher learning. Establishing credibility was a process, however, not a given—even with Thomas Jefferson as its founder. UVa went through very real growing pains, as Rex Bowman and Carlos Santos make clear in their new book Rot, Riot, and Rebellion: Mr. Jefferson’s Struggle to Save the University that Changed America. In the following piece, coathor Carlos Santos takes on an issue at the center of higher learning—tuition—and illustrates how Edgar Allan Poe’s folks didn’t have it any better than your folks…

Much has changed at the University of Virginia in the past 185 years, but not tuition shock—that feeling of parental despair and pain over the cost of a college education.  UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan recently released some sticker-shock news. She announced changes to the nationally recognized AccessUVa financial-aid program, reverting back to loans versus outright grants. The adjustments will be phased in over a four-year period by class, beginning with the 2014-15 academic year. Sullivan says that “once fully implemented, this new approach will help the University moderate escalating program costs by about $6 million per year.”  But it won’t moderate parental costs at all, of course.

This fall we will be bringing out Independence without Freedom: Iran’s Foreign Policy, in which one of the great commentators on modern Iran, R. K. Ramazani, summarizes six decades of political history in this volatile and important nation. With the election this summer of a new president, Ramazani has several important questions about the future of Iran and the promises made by its new leader. Ramazani writes, “Hassan Rouhani’s surprise landslide victory in Iran’s elections astounded Iranians, Americans, and much of the world. In his victory speech, he claimed he would travel the road to ‘moderation.’ What does this mean? Is he a ‘mianeh ro’ or ‘e’tedal,’ meaning middle of the road or just man, or alternatively, is he simply against extremism? If so, is he a ‘centrist’ and ‘pragmatist,’ responding flexibly to different situations, or is he, as he has been called, ‘the diplomatic sheikh’?”