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St. Mary's to Increase Financial Aid 13 Percent: With Federal Pell Grant Assistance Stagnant, School to Pick Up Slack for at Least One More Year, Leaders Say

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Matt Krupnick, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Mar. 14--MORAGA -- Worried about losing poor students, St. Mary's College administrators have taken more steps to allow those students to afford the school's rising tuition.

Five years after the school committed to having a quarter of its student body from the lowest income levels, St. Mary's officials say they will boost the college's financial aid by 13.5 percent next year to keep up with rising student fees.

Administrators had said previously that they weren't sure the school would be able to stand by its commitment next year. The maximum federal Pell Grant for low-income students is expected to remain at $4,050 next year, the same ceiling it has had since 2003.

The stagnant aid level means schools such as St. Mary's, which costs more than $40,000 a year in combined fees, have to spend significantly more money on their own grants for students to afford higher costs.

But increased state aid is expected to help St. Mary's defray those costs, meaning the college -- which will spend $23 million on financial aid next year -- will be able to afford at least one more year of its commitment.

"We can't just be a school for rich kids," said Michael Beseda, the college's vice provost for enrollment.

The St. Mary's situation is similar to those at dozens of schools across the nation. Faced with a growing wave of criticism that college admissions favor wealthy students, schools large and small have started making extra efforts to attract poor students.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, officials decided this month to spend an additional $1.5 million next year to match students' Pell Grants for the first time. The measure was partly a way to increase the number of Pell recipients at the school -- at 15 percent this year -- and partly an attempt to persuade the federal government to commit more money to need-based scholarships.

"It's a way to get (low-income students) to imagine the possibility of attending a place like MIT," said Elizabeth Hicks, executive director of financial services at MIT. "We don't want to leave anyone behind."

Democrats and educators have criticized the Bush administration for not devoting more funding to need-based aid. College fees have risen steadily -- sharply, in some cases -- at nearly every school in the nation in recent years, but Pell Grants have remained at the same level.

Federal education officials say the government has expanded the number of Pell Grants and supplemented them with new need-based scholarships that range from $750 to $4,000 per year.

"Obviously we know that a student who has earned a bachelor's degree has a much higher earning potential," said Chad Colby, a spokesman for the U.S. Education Department.

But some students and educators say $4,000 per year does little to offset student fees that often start at several times that amount. Studies have noted that debt has climbed rapidly among students in recent years as they have turned increasingly to loans and credit cards to pay expenses.

At St. Mary's, students pay more than $41,000 per year for tuition, housing, supplies and other expenses. UC Berkeley students pay about $23,000, while an MIT education costs about $43,000 per year.

The Pell Grant "certainly doesn't have the buying power it once had," said Robert Shireman, a Berkeley-based researcher who serves on the Federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

Several St. Mary's students said it would have been difficult to attend a four-year school without the college supplementing Pell Grants with its own aid.

"I really appreciate that the school helps people get here who wouldn't otherwise be here," said Colin Gallagher, a 19-year-old St. Mary's sophomore from Oregon. "How smart you are doesn't depend on how much money you have."

While few admissions officers would disagree with Gallagher publicly, some of the nation's elite schools have come under fire for excluding poor students. A 2003 study by the Century Foundation showed that just 3 percent of students at the country's 146 most selective colleges were from the bottom 25 percent of socioeconomic status.

That statistic doesn't sit well with Richard Black, UC Berkeley's associate vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment. Nearly one-third of Berkeley's student body receives Pell Grants, far more than most of the university's comparison schools.

An economically balanced student body is essential to a good education, Black said.

"Not only are we fostering the American dream, but we are providing a better education for the other students as well," he said. "Rich students have something to teach poor students, just as poor students have something to teach rich students."

Matt Krupnick covers higher education. Reach him at 925-943-8246 or mkrupnick@cctimes.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

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Source: Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

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