The Online Reflector

In the state of Indiana, less than 4 percent of the state’s higher education non-capital budget goes to students in private schools. Yet, private schools produce 35 percent of the state’s bachelor’s degrees, referenced from University of Indianapolis President Beverley Pitts’ opinion column that ran in The Indianapolis Star.

On Feb. 8, University of Indianapolis students who receive grants from the State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana (SSACI), with students from 10 other private schools, went to the Statehouse to thank their representatives and senators for the grants that help them attend school.

“We want our legislature to know they made a great decision in funding students to take this money to private schools,” said David Wantz, associate vice-president of community relations. “They can take it to any school they want to, but we in the private schools say we do really wonderful things with that money, because our students graduate.”

Two other groups of Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI) universities will participate in Lobby Day, one on March 8 and the other on April 20, resulting in all 31 ICI universities participating.

UIndy students met at the Indiana Historical Society at 10:30 a.m. and went on to visit legislators at the Statehouse at 11:30.

Because Indiana is on a bi-annual budget, budgeting issues are revisited every other year. That is when Lobby Day is held.

“We’re trying to put a human face on the abstract principle of budget, and we want our legislators to realize it’s one of their constituents, their neighbors, who is benefitting from this. And moreover, we want our students to understand how government works and how this [Statehouse] is the people’s temple,” Wantz said.

Director of Financial Aid Linda Handy agreed that while legislators have good intentions and have been responsive to the needs of students in terms of state aid, they are far removed.
“It helps them to actually shake a hand of a student and tie their actions to the students that it affects,” Handy said.

Handy also stressed the financial importance of Lobby Day and the SSACI funds.
Two years ago, the maximum amount of funding went from $12,000 to $7,000, but Handy said that is due to more people enrolling in college. Indiana government has worked hard to infuse money back into the program to support education. She said that Indiana has been one of the better states in the country in terms of attention to state aid and supporting college students.

“This is the first year of the biennium, which means that the budget is up for grabs,” Handy said. “The economy has been such that even though it’s recovering a certain amount, it may not be sufficient to avoid additional state agency cuts. So students need to be vocal about the importance of the state aid to them in their ability to actually enroll in college.”

According to Handy, SSACI grants are important to UIndy especially, because UIndy traditionally has a very high concentration of first generation students, who may not be as aware of some of the financial aspects of the college education. She also said that funding students is a good long-range budget decision, because better education leads to better jobs and, in return, increased returns on Indiana taxes.

According to Wantz, attending Lobby Day offers many benefits for the students involved. They have an opportunity to thank legislators for the funds that frequently enable them to attend college and to engage in citizenship.

“[Thomas] Jefferson said the goal of education is to make a better citizen,” Wantz said. “And I think that’s part of our obligation in teaching is, to help our students understand that this isn’t the government, it’s my government, and so teaching them how to be effective citizens in the United States is one of the historical themes of education. Citizenship sounds like an old-fashioned term, but it’s a crucial term.”

Senior Michele Beanblossom was one of the students who attended.

“I believe that participating in Lobby Day is a great opportunity for me to help give back to my UIndy community,” she said. “I have always been an advocate for going to school and furthering one’s education and opportunities, and that’s what the SSACI funds allow students to do. They give students the necessary extra funding that the government isn’t able to do anymore due to budget cuts. It helps students not have to take larger loans and eases the burden of paying for school, however that may be.”

According to Pitts’ article, financial aid is an especially pressing issue for students attending Indiana’s private colleges, because more than 90 percent of them receive some type of need-based aid.

“Helping these future professionals complete their education is important not only to them and their families, but also to our communities, our economy and our future,” Pitts said. “That’s an easy investment to justify.”