It”™s getting more expensive to do just about anything these days and that includes going to college.
In Connecticut, the Board of Regents for Higher Education of Connecticut State Colleges & Universities earlier this month voted to raise tuition at most of its public schools (four state universities and 12 community colleges) at rates between 3 and 4 percent. In addition, the University of Connecticut last month announced an increase of tuition and fees of 4.5 percent annually over the next four years, while also planning to add some 300 faculty members during that timeframe.
Meanwhile, New York public-school students are in the midst of Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant Program, which introduced a predictable ($300 per year for five years) increase for tuitions. Within its proposed 2012-13 budget, Cuomo”™s plan is to maintain general fund operating support for SUNY and CUNY colleges while maintaining base operating aid funding for community colleges.
While students will have to pay more for their education, what many may not realize is that the schools are often more than sympathetic to their plight.
Increasingly, schools are putting the spotlight on opportunities for students to get grants and scholarships, pointing them toward financial-aid help and stepping up counseling efforts.
Elizabeth Sullivan, Sacred Heart University”™s vice provost for admissions and financial assistance, said that “At this point in our budget development cycle for next year, we are reviewing our tuition cost as well as our ongoing level of financial aid support. Higher education is perhaps the most important investment students and their families will ever make, and it is one that will pay great dividends and bring a lifetime of returns. At Sacred Heart, our financial aid staff members work in partnership with our students and their families to ensure that they understand the guidelines for applying for aid and the real costs of college. They are also available to provide budget and financial literacy coaching.”
She said, “We are confident that a Sacred Heart education is extremely valuable and statistics bear that out. For example, even in this challenging economy 96 percent of our graduates have either secured jobs or gone on to graduate school. And our four-year graduation rate exceeds the national average for all institutions, public and private.”
At least one other Fairfield County school has things well in hand to also help students be able to continue to afford their schooling.
Pamela Edington, provost and dean of academic affairs for Norwalk Community College, said her students, as at all public community colleges in Connecticut, will face a 3.1 percent increase, which translates to $108 per year for in-state students. The Regents”™ ruling will mean undergraduates at state universities will pay 3.8 percent more, or $315, for commuters or 3.7 percent more, or $676, for residential students.
Edington said that having to pass more of the cost to the students is simply a reality “with the economic downturn and the reduction in the state allocation to the community colleges.”
“Unfortunately the tuition increases are just part of the landscape,” she said. “We need those to open our buildings and hire our faculty and staff.”
But, she said, that doesn”™t mean the institutions are not ready to offer more concrete help to students in need. Instead, she says, current and future students should look to their schools as “a resource to help.”
Edington said plans are continuing for the school to work on its internal processes that determine “the way that we bring students into the college.”
In meetings and school brochures, there is a push to offer more detailed information about payment plans and financial-aid options, she said.
Sessions have also been held to offer both individual and group counseling to incoming students to make them aware of all the help available to them.
One example is the school”™s participation in College Goal Sunday (held this year Jan. 29). The event is a chance for students and their parents to learn more about how to apply for financial aid ”“ even if they”™re not planning on applying to the college itself.
The free afternoon, she said, offers “the opportunity for families to come and get assistance with filling out financial-aid applications ”¦ regardless to what college they intend to apply to.”
It”™s a process, she notes, that will point out both federal programs and grant options and help guide them through a process that can be “pretty complicated.”
In addition, Edington adds, the college”™s foundation remains an active force in helping students meet their tuitions.
“The Norwalk Community College Foundation donated $800,000 in scholarship aid to our students in the past year,” she said.
“I think the bottom line to communicate to people (is) getting a credential.”
Completing a course of higher education, she adds, “is very important in the new economy.
“You always hope that finances are not the determining factor in keeping them from advancing their life. Our mission is to provide access to higher education.”
