Amid their own round of budget woes, the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill has announced plans to cover tuition and
fees for all low-income students beginning next fall.
Though federal and state grants are already available for
low-income families, the Carolina Covenant would be the first
program of its nature to be offered by a public university.
All students from families within 150 percent of the national
poverty level ““ $28,000 or less for a two-parent family with
two children; $18,000 for a single parent with one child ““
would be eligible for the program beginning next fall.
Carolina Covenant has sparked conversation and consideration
among administrators of other public universities, but experts
disagree on the necessity and feasibility of such a program.
Though many UCLA students said they would appreciate a similar
program, the University of California cannot afford a
“California Covenant” because the UC enrolls
significantly more low-income freshmen than UNC Chapel Hill, said
UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman.
In the 2002-2003 school year, almost 19 percent of the
UC’s freshmen class ““ 5,916 students ““ came from
families with an aggregate income of less than $30,000. As a much
smaller school, UNC enrolled only 281 low-income freshmen ““
equivalent to 8 percent of the class.
UNC predicted that when serving all eligible students, the
covenant will cost the university $1.38 million per year. Eisenman
said it would cost the UC more than $113 million to offer the same
program.
“In this budgetary climate, that does not exist,”
said UCLA financial aid director Ronald Johnson.
This year, the UC suffered a $410 million cut in state funding.
To offset the cut, the UC Regents raised student fees 30
percent.
The Carolina Covenant’s announcement comes on the heels of
a 5 percent tuition and fee increase for UNC. The university
developed the program to ensure that children of low-income workers
would not be excluded from attending UNC because of financial
reasons, said Shirley Ort, UNC associate provost and director of
scholarships and student aid.
UNC student fees are among the lowest in the nation. This year,
tuition and fees for students with state residency total
$4,072.
“There is a populist sentiment and commitment here to take
care of the residents of this state,” Ort said. “We
don’t think that low tuition is enough anymore ““ we
need the complement of a strong student-aid package.”
Eisenman said the UC is already succeeding in the
covenant’s intent ““ to make sure no student is kept out
of college for financial reasons.
On average, UC undergraduates received $3,330 in financial aid
in the 2001-2002 school year, and nearly 50 percent of all students
received some aid.
But for many students, financial aid packages were increased by
giving students more loans, which contrasts the
give-without-expecting-to-receive nature of the Carolina
Covenant.
Similar to most university-based financial aid, the covenant
requires students to work 10 to 12 hours per week at a federal
work-study job. The difference with the covenant is that when
students graduate, they will be debt-free.
Angela Brizuela, a third-year UCLA biology and sociology
student, comes from a working-class family. Though Brizuela is
currently a full-time student, she works a second job, in addition
to the 10 hours of work-study she must do each week to maintain her
financial aid.
“When you get out of school they expect you to have this
great job to pay off your loans, but having to work (now) makes it
difficult to keep up your grades,” Brizuela said, adding that
she expects to graduate with $12,000 of debt.
Many UC students are under similar economic strains. A 2001
James Irvine Foundation study found that the UC enrolls more
low-income students than any university in the country.
When comparing the percent and absolute number of low-income
students enrolled at the top 40 universities ranked by U.S. News
and World Report ““ public and private ““ the UC system
had the three top schools. UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego
ranked first, second and third respectively.
The day after UNC announced the covenant, the University of
Virginia said they too were considering such a program.
Some hope the Carolina Covenant will begin a chain reaction
across the country.
“Trends in higher education point to lower income students
having an increasingly difficult time paying for school,”
said Will Doyle, senior research analyst for the National Center
for Public Policy and Higher Education.
Praising UNC, Doyle said, “The test will be if that same
kind of concern, and that same kind of commitment, can spread to
other institutions.”