Growing numbers of colleges and universities, as well as independent schools, are targeting parents, grandparents, and other nonalumni friends for gifts to meet institutional needs and, at many public institutions, replace appropriations lost to Draconian state cuts. Such efforts have taken root despite parents shouldering ever-climbing college…

As president of Miami University of Ohio from 1996 until 2006, James C. Garland redefined the public institution as a "semi-private" university by implementing the same tuition for both in-state and out-of-state students. Students from Ohio with need received large scholarships--but those who could afford to pay more did so. The reform,…