A spectacle of our time is academe’s upscale sector proceeding in herdlike fashion to let in promising poor students, along with some of the not-so-poor, at bargain prices or no cost at all.

When and why did it dawn upon the managerial savants at these institutions that $40,000 or more a year for tuition, room, and board was a bit much for many talented students — even with generous reductions for the most needy?

Why did a flock of wealthy private schools, within months of one another, succumb to charitable impulses and, with a blare of self-congratulation, designate a dollop of their bountiful resources for the offspring of low and middling earners? We’ll probably never get the inside story of decision making at higher education’s highest levels, since private universities are secretive about their financial dealings.

But the stampede factor is evident. As are rumblings in Congress about universities accumulating hefty endowments from which they expend very little while their tuition increases regularly exceed inflation. Universities are currently exempt from rules that require foundations and other nonprofit organizations to expend at least 5 percent of their resources annually. Most universities spend less, and nonsensically insist that spending more would be financially imprudent — as plump endowments continue to swell.

In response to the threat of enforced spending, expanded aid to the poor is both appealing and cheap.

First came Harvard — current price $45,456 — announcing in December a free ride for students from families with incomes below $60,000. Those of higher income would have to pay according to a rising scale that tops out at an altitude well above the poverty line. For a family making $180,000, costs would be held to $18,000 — a bargain, given that Harvard’s then-prevailing aid scheme required payment of $30,000.

The expanded program, which will raise Harvard’s financial-aid expenditures to $120-million, was warmly introduced by Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, who said, “We want all students who might dream of a Harvard education to know that it is a realistic and affordable option.”

With an endowment that clocked in at just under $35-billion in the most recent reckoning, plus annual gifts totaling about $600-million, the new aid program will not be a burden on Harvard’s resources. A daydreaming accountant could miss it.

Within a few months after Harvard’s announcement, five other schools in the eight-member Ivy League fell in step with similar programs, as did another rich one, Stanford University.

The latest Ivy to come along is Brown, which made its announcement on February 25, with appropriate sanctimony. “We recognize and understand the concerns of America’s families about the rising cost of higher education,” said Ruth Simmons, president of Brown, adding, “With a new aid package and a smaller increase in tuition, we hope to address their concerns in a fiscally responsible manner while continuing to attract the best students with diverse backgrounds to Brown.”

What a good idea: Admitting worthy poor students at no cost or little cost. Simultaneous discovery is a well-established phenomenon in the sciences. Apparently it exists too in university management.