GROVE CITY — Thirty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Grove City College in the landmark case Grove City College v. Bell.

However, the Feb. 28, 1984, court decision, which eventually led to the college dropping out of the federal student loan and grant program, ultimately is seen as a victory for the independent-minded college.

“We lost the battle; we won the war,” said college President Richard Jewell.

In 1976, college President Charles MacKenzie declined to sign a form that said it would comply with Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination against women in education.

Lee Wishing, administrative director of the college’s Center for Vision and Values, said that the college did not object to the spirit of Title IX, but it did not like the “fine print,” which he said stated that the college would have to comply with all federally-mandated regulations if it signed.

The college has been co-ed since it was founded and always had female faculty, which Jewell said was unusual for a private school founded in the 1800s. He said the college did not want to be compelled by the form.

“We were doing it ourselves,” said Jewell, who noted that the college has more NCAA women’s sports than men’s sports.

The then federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare took the case to an internal, administrative court.

Wishing said the judge there said he had no problem with the college not complying with Title IX, but the judge said he had to comply with the department.

The college sued the government in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in 1978 and won. The government appealed the case, and the college lost in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.

So, the college appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At the same time, Hillsdale College in Michigan was going through a similar situation and had appealed to the Supreme Court. However, the court chose to hear the Grove City case because Grove City students who received federal grants or loans got them directly.

“It didn’t touch the college,” Wishing said.

At other colleges, the colleges got the money and then distributed it to the students. Wishing said this made Grove City an interesting test case.

Wishing said the question became if aid that goes directly to the student should be considered aid to the institution. The court decided that Title IX only covered the college’s financial aid office, but not the rest of the college.

Although the college lost the case, Wishing noted that many of the justices offered sympathetic words to the college.

After this, students at Grove City could not take federal grants, but still would be able to take federal loans. The college created its own system of scholarships to replace the grants.

In 1988, Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, sometimes called the Grove City Bill, which was initially vetoed by President Ronald Reagan. Congress overrode the veto.

The bill overturned the Supreme Court case, and said that Title IX applied to the entire college.

In the mid-1990s, with federal loan default rates skyrocketing, the government put such loans under closer scrutiny, Wishing said.

At the time, the college had a default rate of 0.7 percent, which Wishing said was the lowest in the country. However, he said the college figured that the government would go after it again.

So Grove City dropped out of the federal student loan program and created its own system of private loans through PNC Bank in 1996. Instead of the government guaranteeing the loan, the college does.

The college guarantees the money above a default rate of 4 percent.

“I don’t believe we’ll ever approach that number,” Jewell said.

Overall, Jewell said withdrawing from federal funding has not been a big problem for the college. Over the college’s last two capital campaigns, Jewell said it has raised $46 million for scholarships. Out of the 88 private colleges in the state, Jewell said Grove City’s tuition is the lowest.

“We’ve not been adversely affected,” Jewell said.

He said the federal government, starting under President George Bush and continuing under President Barack Obama, has been looking at federalizing the accreditation process for colleges and universities. Currently, accreditation is a peer review process.

Jewell feels the college would be insulated from federalized accreditation because it does not accept federal money.

David Rathburn, chairman of the college board of trustees, said withdrawing from federal aid was the right thing to do, but it has made operations more difficult.

In addition to students not being able to take federal loans and grants, professors are not able to seek federal research funds.

“However, we believed then and we believe now that the ability to maintain our independence and operate the college in the best manner possible without interference from others allows us to remain true to the founding principles established nearly 140 years ago,” Rathburn said.

Wishing said the college has to work hard to keep costs down so it can help with scholarships. But he noted it can be expensive to comply with all federal regulations.

“Grove City operates truly independently,” Wishing said. “We’re paying our own way.”