The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A NEW COMMITMENT
UConn to cover tuition for students with family incomes under $50K
The University of Connecticut will cover full tuition costs for instate students with family incomes below $50,000 starting this fall, President Thomas Katsouleas announced Friday during his inauguration.
The “Connecticut Commitment” makes the university the latest in the U.S. to implement the increasingly popular “promise program,” which promises free tuition to students under certain income levels. Incoming fulltime students at the flagship and all regional campuses will be eligible as long as they fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by Feb. 15.
“It is critical for U.S. higher education institutions to work to change both the perception and reality of what they deliver,” Katsouleas said.
Friday’s announcement falls into both categories. While the program brings some new money into the school’s financial aid budget, most students with household incomes below $50,000 are already eligible for the grants and scholarships that will cover most of their tuition. The commitment closes any remaining gaps and, in some ways, is more about changing students’ knowledge of what they’re eligible to receive.
UConn expects new students “who might have hesitated to apply to UConn due to their family’s finances” to consider the university now because of the commitment, the school said in a news release.
The program is a “lastdollar” model: It will cover any amount left over to pay for tuition after students’ federal,
state and institutional need and meritbased aid are applied. It will not cover mandatory fees, room and board or books for most students.
The only way the funding can be used for nontuition costs is if students who qualify for the program have also received private scholarships that can only be used for tuition. In those cases, the funding they would have received toward tuition can then be used for fees, housing or books, to avoid penalizing them for receiving the outside scholarships, UConn said.
Katsouleas announced an “aggressive” fundraising campaign to support the Connecticut Commitment, and “other university resources” will also be allocated for the program, the university said. He estimated that 6,000 students will benefit from the program in the first four years, and said he hopes to raise the income cap above $50,000 in the future.
The Connecticut Commitment covers tuition for four years, and students must be continuously enrolled, without any leaves of absence. UConn’s fouryear graduation rate is 72 percent, while 85 percent of students graduate within six years of enrolling.
Instate tuition at the UConn campuses is $13,798 this year.
At the Storrs campus, students are required to pay $3,428 in fees, and oncampus housing and a meal plan cost an estimated $13,258, for a total cost of attendance just over $30,000. The fees, housing and meal plan are not covered by the Connecticut Commitment.
Last year, the average net price of UConn, including housing and fees, for students from families earning less than $30,000 was $11,789, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“We are sending a loud message to Connecticut students: Not only do we want you at UConn, we want to make your degree affordable,” Nathan Fuerst, vice president for enrollment planning and management, said in a statement.
Freetuition programs are growing in number across the country, at both twoand fouryear schools. University of Tennessee launched a similar program last week, with no tuition and fees at the system’s campuses for instate students with a household income below $50,000.
New York’s Excelsior Scholarship provides lastdollar scholarships to cover tuition at all instate public colleges for families making up to $125,000, and requires students to work in the state after graduation for as many years as they received the scholarship. The Catamount Commitment offers a lastdollar scholarship for tuition and fees at the University of Vermont for instate residents who receive a Federal Pell Grant.
Critics of the promise program’s models, however, often point to the high costs of fees, housing and books that can be obstacles to attending college or force students to drop out, which are not covered by the scholarships.
Connecticut is also expected to debut “debtfree community college” next fall, with lastdollar scholarships for instate, firsttime, fulltime students to make tuition essentially free at the 12 community college campuses.
However, the feasibility of implementing that by September has been called into question recently. In a letter to the General Assembly in September, Connecticut State Colleges and Unviersities system President Mark Ojakian said he is “growing increasingly concerned about the viability of its funding source as well as the timing of acquiring that funding.”
Liz.Teitz@hearstmediact.com