Staying afloat during college price increases
During the State of the Union address on Jan. 24, President Barack Obama outlined proposals to make college more affordable for students. Three weeks ago, the University of Indianapolis announced a 3.5 percent increase in tuition plus an increase in room and board. The recent proposals from President Obama are intended to help students currently enrolled in college stay there, even with increases in prices.
College increases reached up to 6.5 percent over the years at other universities, according to a report by the College Board.
The president outlined various solutions that he believes will help students afford college. One suggested solution would increase the number of work-study programs to help middle and lower income families afford college. Many work-study programs give students the opportunity to earn money working on campus. Director of Financial Aid Linda Handy believes that an increase in work-study money would benefit students.
“We can use more work-study money. We have not had what we consider our fair share of those moneys,” Handy said. “It all goes back to how the money is allocated. And so the university hasn’t had enough. In fact, we run out of work-study money each year.”
Handy said that an increase in work-study programs would significantly help students but would not be the driving force behind why students might choose a college.
“Work-study is not a good recruiting tool. It’s more a matter of helping students once they get here,” Handy said. “Once they get here, [it will help them] to find enough resources to be able to make it financially feasible for them to stay, as opposed to it being a real recruiting tool.”
Other proposals include changing the way federal loans are structured. Under some of these changes the Perkins Loan and others would receive more money to benefit more students.
An increase in these programs could help colleges reevaluate financial aid and how much money they can give to students.
“What you’ll see is probably that colleges will look more at how they structure their financial aid to address some of this,” said Director of Admissions Ron Wilks. “As well, I think that probably what you’re seeing is there are students that are qualifying for more need. There are probably some students, given the economy, that are qualifying for more federal and state aid programs that are out there.”
The recent UIndy increases have raised questions about the affordability of the institution. While the increase may come as a burden to students, Handy praises UIndy for keeping the increase low.
“The university has done an excellent job over the last few years in keeping tuition increases to a modest level,” Handy said. “Any increase is not good, from the students’ point-of-view, but we are still, amongst the private schools, one of the most affordable institutions out there.”
Both Handy and Wilks suggest that students explore all options before making decisions about the affordability of the college they are attending or want to attend.
“I think the thing for families to think about is not necessarily jumping to the conclusion that it’s not going to be possible for them to attend the college of their choice,” Wilks said. “I think there’s this hesitancy, [this tendency] to say, ‘there is no way I can afford that.’ And sometimes the families are not necessarily aware of what help is actually out there.”
Wilks believes that tuition increases will not cause students to stay away from colleges but will make them think harder about their final choice.
“I think there’s always going to be a demand for college. So I don’t necessarily think that you’re going to see students that aren’t going to be able to get into college,” Wilks said. “[It’s] just a matter of where they’re going to be able to go. You might see [that] some of the more selective schools may not be an option for some students. But again when I look around at other colleges I think there’s an effort there—at least in colleges that are trying to be more conscientious of price and how to make it affordable for students.”
Handy believes that small increases have kept UIndy competitive with private universities and brought socioeconomic diversity.
“That [small increase] gives us the advantage of being able to draw students from a number of different socioeconomic categories,” Handy said. “And we have people who are on welfare—all the way to people who have enough money that they can pay the full charge, so that gives us the flexibility to be able to serve populations across that whole income stream.”
