tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/financial-aid-18564/articlesFinancial aid – The Conversation2024-02-19T13:36:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235312024-02-19T13:36:32Z2024-02-19T13:36:32ZFAFSA website meltdown: How to avoid additional frustration with financial aid applications<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576239/original/file-20240216-16-d8twal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some colleges are extending the traditional May 1 deadline for students to accept offers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-with-digital-tablet-having-problems-royalty-free-image/832996896?phrase=paying+for+college+stressed+out&adppopup=true">valentinrussanov via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Congress passed the <a href="https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/fafsa-simplification-act">FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020</a>, it was touted as making it easier for more families to access the government funding they need to send their children to college. But as recent events have shown, it actually <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/frustration-all-around-the-fafsas-rocky-rollout">made things more complicated, frustrating and confusing</a>.</p>
<p>While the new federal student aid form – known as the FAFSA – is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/fafsa-changes-what-you-need-to-know/#:%7E:text=The%20new%20FAFSA%20application%20requires,one%20has%20less%20than%2050.">much shorter and requires less manual entry</a> of tax information, there were glitches and delays in rolling it out, as with many new websites.</p>
<p>Initially, families could access the FAFSA only for a limited time during a “<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2024/01/03/fafsa-soft-launch-vexes-families-and-counselors">soft launch” period in December</a>.</p>
<p>Now the form is accessible to families for them to complete, but the data is not flowing out to schools and colleges. Applicants are also discovering another problem. Often, students and parents may need to consult other documents or each other as part of the application process, so they will pause their application to complete it later. However, after initially logging into the FAFSA website, many students and parents experienced difficulty when returning to finalize their submission. The simplified FAFSA application has been online since the end of December, but users are still <a href="https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/fafsa-simplification-information/2024-25-fafsa-issue-alerts">experiencing some problems</a>.</p>
<p>The Department of Education’s student aid calculations have also been delayed as it incorporates a <a href="https://financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov/tk/announcement-detail.jsp?id=fafsa-changes-student-aid-index">new formula</a> intended to expand eligibility for financial aid. The department also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/01/fafsa-income-allowance-protection-calculation-error/">made an error</a> in the formula when adjusting for inflation. The calculations used for the determination of aid eligibility had been based on outdated consumer price index rules from 2020 but have since been corrected. All of this has delayed sending aid calculations to schools. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://drexel.edu/news/archive/2023/November/Dawn-Medley-to-join-Drexel-as-SVP-for-Enrollment-Management">longtime college administrator</a> who has developed programs to improve access to higher education, I see this situation as a well-intentioned but poorly executed effort. Ultimately, I believe the changes to FAFSA will help more students realize their dream of earning a degree, but this year I’m afraid it may cause many to abandon it.</p>
<p>To better understand the situation and what might come next, it helps to know how the government and schools work together to provide financial aid.</p>
<h2>Measuring ability to pay</h2>
<p>The Department of Education <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/102nd-congress/senate-bill/1150">created the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in 1992</a> to determine how much the federal government believes a family can contribute for a child’s college education. To be eligible for <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">Pell Grants</a>, <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/work-study">federal work-study</a> or even <a href="https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/how-to-apply-for-federal-student-loan">student loans</a>, students and families must complete the FAFSA. </p>
<p>Submitting the FAFSA prompts the Department of Education to set the amount it will offer in loans and other federal funding. The department then sends that information to the schools to which a student has applied. From there, the schools determine what additional financial aid they can provide. The schools make a final offer of financial assistance, called an award notice or award letter, to prospective students. Typically, this process takes a couple of months, and students <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/financial-aid-award-letter/">can expect to receive their award letter</a> from schools by the end of March, depending on when they filled out the FAFSA.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">What happens after submitting your FAFSA form?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Feb. 13, 2024, the Department of Education announced <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/amid-fafsa-delays-education-dept-will-reduce-verification-requirements-for-aid-applicants">a temporary fix</a> intended to shorten the department’s application review process, which would enable schools to make their offers sooner.</p>
<h2>Extensions granted</h2>
<p>In the meantime, some institutions have taken steps to alleviate stress and provide more clarity to applicants. Many schools have chosen to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/02/14/dc-colleges-extend-admissions-deadline-fafsa-delay/">extend students’ time</a> to accept their offer, moving from the traditional deadline of May 1, which is known as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/student-resources/college-decision-day/#:%7E:text=Each%20year%2C%20National%20Decision%20Day,might%20enforce%20different%20decision%20deadlines.">National Decision Day</a>, to May 15 or even June 1. </p>
<p>Some have created their own <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/business/fafsa-delays-financial-aid.html">mini FAFSA application</a> to shortcut the aid application process; others are using their own aid calculators. Drexel University, where I oversee financial aid, has decided to forgo the FAFSA process and make a final offer based on another profile on a platform called <a href="https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/">College Scholarship Service</a> that applicants complete.</p>
<p>None of these solutions is perfect. My peers and I are concerned that the frustration and confusion will lead students, <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/fafsa-delays-raise-concerns-some-students-will-miss-out-on-college-aid/">particularly those who are the first in their families</a> to go to college, to walk away from higher education altogether.</p>
<p>Students and families should now expect schools to communicate regularly, provide clear and concise information, and encourage students to fill out both a College Scholarship Service profile and a FAFSA if they haven’t already. The financial aid process is complicated, but it’s the responsibility of schools to distill it into a set of simple steps for their applicants.</p>
<h2>Practical tips</h2>
<p>Here are a few tips for students and their families going though this process right now:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Families should communicate with schools to see whether they are able to receive official offers based on net price calculators, College Scholarship Service profiles or school-created solutions. Students can do this via the schools’ websites, texting, email or even phoning. </p></li>
<li><p>If families do not have a guaranteed award from a school, they should ask for a deposit deadline extension so they have the full information they need to make a decision.</p></li>
<li><p>Institutions want to assist and support students through this period of uncertainty, so don’t be afraid to ask questions and stay in touch with the experts who have the most updated information.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dawn Medley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A college administrator offers insights into the rocky rollout of the Department of Education’s supposedly ‘simplified’ financial aid form.Dawn Medley, Senior Vice President of Enrollment Management, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173842023-12-11T10:21:53Z2023-12-11T10:21:53ZNeeding to borrow money? Four tips on what’s okay and what’s not<p>It’s a financially challenging time for most households. With interest rates rising, many are spending even more money on debt repayments or taking out loans to help make ends meet. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://api.moneyedge.co.za/uploads/JOB_027311_Nedbank_NEDFIN_Health_Monitor_Report_V5i_Interactive_ae1185bd97.pdf">report</a> released recently in South Africa, compiled by one of the country’s biggest banks, found that <a href="https://api.moneyedge.co.za/uploads/JOB_027311_Nedbank_NEDFIN_Health_Monitor_Report_V5i_Interactive_ae1185bd97.pdf#page=12">42% of South Africans</a>, across various income levels, cannot manage their debt. This indebtedness has caused 67% of the respondents to worry about their debt to the point that it negatively affects their mental health.</p>
<p>As a new year gets underway, it’s a good time to reflect on your financial portfolio.</p>
<p>My research as a finance and financial planning <a href="https://researchprofiles.canberra.edu.au/en/persons/bomikazi-zeka/publications/">academic</a> seeks to understand the pathways that lead to economic empowerment and improve financial security, including the role of debt and other financial products. </p>
<p>There may be instances where the use of a credit card might be absolutely necessary (for example if you are making travel bookings). But for the most part if you are borrowing to pay regular expenses, increasing your credit limit, or using a credit card (or borrowing money from family) to pay off existing debt, then it may be worthwhile to consider these four tips on borrowing money.</p>
<h2>Four tips</h2>
<p><strong>Firstly</strong>, it’s good to know what amount of debt is okay to hold.</p>
<p>There is no easy answer to this because everyone’s financial situation is unique – and this will determine how much debt each person should draw on. Making this assessment requires knowing your ability to service debt. In other words, the amount of debt you take on should be guided by your ability to comfortably repay it. </p>
<p>The debt service ratio is a useful tool to determine this. It’s calculated by dividing your monthly debt by your monthly income. Say for example your monthly debt repayment is R6,000 and you earn a monthly salary of R30,000. You’d have a debt service ratio of 20%. As a general rule of thumb, a debt service ratio of 25% or less is considered acceptable. </p>
<p>Calculating this ratio will help you set a limit for how much income you are prepared to commit to your debt repayments. </p>
<p><strong>Secondly</strong>, be picky about who you borrow money from. </p>
<p>Financial institutions, such as banks or other formal money lenders, are the most popular sources for borrowing because the terms of borrowing, fees and interest rates can be determined in advance. More than that, borrowing from a regulated and recognised financial institution helps build a credit score, and, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, you need debt to take out debt. If you need to take out a more substantial loan in future, such as a mortgage or vehicle financing, then having a loan from a regulated financial institution helps to determine your credit score. Your payment history, account information, amounts owed and how long the account has been active are on record. This can give a good indication of your ability to service a future debt commitment.</p>
<p><strong>Thirdly</strong>, there are sources of borrowing you should avoid.</p>
<p>There are many ways and places to borrow money from – but not all of them are advisable.</p>
<p>It is common (and sometimes culturally accepted) to borrow from friends or family. But almost everyone who has gone down the route of borrowing from loved ones knows that it has the potential to ruin relationships when the terms of the repayment have not been honoured. Friends and family may not charge interest and tend to be more flexible than formal financial institutions. But borrowing from those close to you can cause a significant strain on a relationship – and even end it. </p>
<p>Then there are the loan sharks who charge exorbitant interest rates on their loans and get away with it because they are unregistered and unregulated. They also prey on the vulnerability of consumers who need a loan and resort to unscrupulous tactics when the loans aren’t repaid on time. Being in debt is stressful enough and borrowing from an informal moneylender can only do more harm than good. </p>
<p><strong>Fourthly</strong>, be scrupulous about what you’re borrowing money for.</p>
<p>Debt can be used to buy almost anything, from a cup of coffee to big ticket items such as a car or a house. However, anything that does not have a significant monetary value or is consumption-driven – clothing accounts, entertainment, or appliances – should not be financed through debt. That’s because the interest or fees of the credit used to buy consumable goods is often greater than the value of the consumable itself. </p>
<p>When you buy anything through debt, it’s worthwhile to ask yourself whether the purchase is worth the interest that is attached to it, and the future income you will need to commit to repaying the debt. </p>
<p>Knowing how much debt you should have, where to acquire it and what to use it for can make a huge difference to your financial wellbeing. Even though it has its uses, debt can quickly become a slippery slope when it’s not properly and consistently managed. If you are unsure about how to use debt, it’s always better to seek the help of a professional financial adviser.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bomikazi Zeka does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Avoid borrowing to pay regular expenses or to pay off existing debtBomikazi Zeka, Assistant Professor in Finance and Financial Planning, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2124492023-10-24T04:11:28Z2023-10-24T04:11:28ZIndonesia needs to triple its funding to control tuberculosis – here’s where to start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552901/original/file-20231010-24-za7ydt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Image of a tuberculosis patient.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis#/media/File:Depiction_of_a_tuberculosis_patient.png">Myupchar/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia is still <a href="https://tbindonesia.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Factsheet-Country-Profile-Indonesia-2022.pdf">struggling to fight tuberculosis (TB)</a>, with the second-highest number of cases worldwide.</p>
<p>In 2021, one study estimated Indonesia had a staggering incidence rate of TB <a href="https://rdi.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Increasing-Financing-for-Tuberculosis-Programs-in-Indonesia.pdf">759 cases per 100,000 people</a> – more than double the World Health Organization’s 2021 estimate <a href="https://data.who.int/indicators/i/C288D13">354 cases per 100,000 Indonesians</a>. That compares with a global average of <a href="https://data.who.int/indicators/i/C288D13">134 per 100,000 people</a>.</p>
<p>Undeterred by the challenges posed by TB, Indonesia has set ambitious targets of reducing TB cases to <a href="https://tbindonesia.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NSP-TB-2020-2024-Ind_Final_-BAHASA.pdf">190 per 100,000 individuals</a> by 2024 and to 65 per 100,000 by 2030. </p>
<p>With a staggering number of TB cases and those ambitious targets, the country urgently requires increased funding to combat this potentially deadly but preventable communicable disease. </p>
<p>Currently, insufficient funding is a significant obstacle in Indonesia to fight against TB. <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/digital/global-tuberculosis-report-2021/financing">Sustained adequate funding</a> would ensure the availability of essential resources, diagnostic tools, medications and healthcare services necessary to prevent, diagnose and treat TB effectively. </p>
<h2>Lack of funding risks more people getting sick</h2>
<p>Known as the <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240013131">TB financing gap</a>, lack of funding can lead to inadequate diagnostic tools and equipment provision, resulting in delayed or inaccurate diagnoses. These delays have grave consequences.</p>
<p>Studies <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558533/">have shown</a> delayed treatment of TB increases disease transmission, posing a greater risk to individuals and communities.</p>
<p>Worldwide, 1.6 million people died from TB in 2021, making it the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis#:%7E:text=A%20total%20of%201.6%20million,(above%20HIV%20and%20AIDS).">13th leading cause of death</a> – and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19.</p>
<p>According to Indonesia’s national strategy, the country needs to spend <a href="https://tbindonesia.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/NSP-TB-2020-2024-Ind_Final_-BAHASA.pdf">Rp47.3 trillion (US$3 billion)</a> from 2020 to 2024 to control TB. However, the budget availability for that period is only around Rp15.7 trillion ($990 million). </p>
<p>Indonesia also lacks access to financing help pay for those extra control measures.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240013131">WHO Global Tuberculosis Report</a> said Indonesia needs US$429 million for TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment and US$87 million for tuberculosis care – a total of US$516 million. But it has only secured only US$111 million. </p>
<p>In fact, WHO data shows that since 2009, Indonesia has consistently <a href="https://rdi.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Increasing-Financing-for-Tuberculosis-Programs-in-Indonesia.pdf">failed to meet the necessary TB financing requirements</a>, financing only 41% of the needed TB programs each year, on average.</p>
<p>This financing gap restricts the availability of essential medications for TB treatment. This issue is particularly concerning, as drug-resistant strains of TB are emerging, further complicating treatment efforts.</p>
<h2>The pandemic hit TB funding</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the TB financing gap in Indonesia. </p>
<p>The government had to change its priorities during the pandemic, reallocating its health budget for COVID-19 treatment and mitigation efforts. </p>
<p>WHO said Indonesia’s TB funding decreased <a href="https://www.who.int/indonesia/news/campaign/tb-day-2022/fact-sheets">around 8.7% between 2019 and 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Upon closer examination,<a href="https://rdi.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Increasing-Financing-for-Tuberculosis-Programs-in-Indonesia.pdf">Two significant reasons emerge</a> related to factors contributing to the funding gap. </p>
<p>First, the lack of adequate fund to cover the costs of TB services. This limits the reach and impact of programs. </p>
<p>There is also a tendency among patients to seek diagnosis and treatment at hospitals, rather than local primary healthcare centres and clinics. This leads to a heavier financial burden on the National Health Insurance system, because treatment costs in hospitals are more expensive.</p>
<p>Second, the lack of private sector involvement in diagnosis, reporting and treatment further compounds the problem, hindering progress. </p>
<h2>What should we do now?</h2>
<p>Increasing domestic financing for TB programs is crucial. </p>
<p>The Indonesian government should allocate a higher proportion of the national budget to prevent and control TB, as well as to conduct TB-related research. </p>
<p>Integrating externally-funded TB programs into the National Health Care system would ensure sustainability and align them with the national healthcare framework. </p>
<p>Strengthening the healthcare system is paramount, including bolstering the capacity and infrastructure of local health centres and clinics, training healthcare professionals, and improving diagnostic and treatment services. </p>
<p>Additionally, exploring innovative financing pathways – such as engaging the private sector through public-private partnerships and leveraging international funding mechanisms – could provide the necessary resources to drive progress.</p>
<p>Closing the TB financing gap is essential, not only to improve patients’ health, but to also safeguard the well-being and socioeconomic stability of communities as a whole. </p>
<p>Indonesia must pursue <a href="https://rdi.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Increasing-Financing-for-Tuberculosis-Programs-in-Indonesia.pdf">strategic actions to overcome these challenges</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Indonesia has the world’s second-highest rates of TB – but lack of funding means not enough people are being diagnosed and treated fast enough.Rahmah Aulia Zahra, Children, Social Welfare, and Health Research Officer, Resilience Development Initiative (RDI)Wewin Wira Cornelis Wahid, Program Officer, Resilience Development Initiative (RDI)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113002023-08-23T14:27:44Z2023-08-23T14:27:44ZAccra’s most vulnerable residents were failed during COVID - the government didn’t understand their realities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541955/original/file-20230809-25-549bx3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents of Accra were given financial aid during the pandemic</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Containment measures, such as the <a href="https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2020/03/ghana-authorities-impose-lockdown-on-two-regions-due-to-covid-19-from-march-30-update-3">lockdowns</a> introduced to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, had devastating consequences for vulnerable urban populations globally. </p>
<p>In response, public, private, and civic organisations responded with various interventions to soften the impact, especially on the most vulnerable. Support was given in the form of cash transfers, food delivery, and personal protective equipment. In Ghana, government support also included <a href="https://www.pwc.com/gh/en/assets/pdf/pwc-ghana-covid-19-tax-measures.pdf">tax waivers</a>, and <a href="https://africa-energy-portal.org/news/ghana-government-absorb-electricity-bills-poor-others-enjoy-50-slash">subsidies </a>for water, electricity, and other household utilities. </p>
<p>Government officials claimed that the interventions reduced the impact of the pandemic on urban residents. And so we sought to analyse how COVID-19 related support from families, friends, government agencies, faith based and non-governmental organisations helped reduce the pandemic’s impact on people. We looked at the impact on four aspects of their capital: financial, human, social and physical.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2664328623000311">study</a> in the <a href="https://adma.gov.gh/">Adenta municipality</a> of the Greater Accra region found that the interventions had limited impacts. We also found that COVID-19 related support only reduced the negative impact of the pandemic on financial capital, and not on the other forms of capital. We discovered that building the residents’ capacity to bounce back after a pandemic would have required comprehensive support, and interventions that were interconnected. </p>
<p>Based on our findings, we recommend that decision makers should anticipate, prepare and plan for risks by focusing on the multiple factors that expose poor people living in cities to severe impacts. This should also involve collaborating with vulnerable groups to draw on their knowledge and experiences. </p>
<p>The everyday life of the urban resident has many aspects. These interact to create and compound their vulnerabilities to a wide range of risks. We suggest that this complex challenge should be an opportunity to rethink planning for and responses to future risks. </p>
<h2>The realities of poor people in cities</h2>
<p>Accra, the capital of Ghana, is home to about <a href="https://www.statsghana.gov.gh/regionalpopulation.php?population=MTM0NTk2MjQzOS4yMDE1&&Greater%20Accra&regid=3">5.5 million residents</a>. The city is characterised by poor planning, widening income inequalities and slow economic growth.</p>
<p>Most households, especially those in <a href="https://theconversation.com/accras-informal-settlements-are-easing-the-citys-urban-housing-crisis-104266">informal settlements</a>, are exposed to poor environmental and economic conditions. City authorities are grappling with high unemployment, urban sprawl and pressure on public amenities. </p>
<p>The first two cases of the virus were <a href="https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2020/03/ghana-ministry-of-health-confirms-first-case-of-covid-19-march-13">recorded</a> in Ghana on 12 March 2020. The virus spread quickly across the country, with Accra recording the highest number of cases. </p>
<p>For our study, we interviewed 400 respondents in the Adenta municipality. It is a densely populated area within the capital. We asked residents to indicate their agreement with a series of statements such as “my accessibility to food was impacted by COVID-19”, “my standard of living significantly fell during the COVID-19 pandemic” and “I received support from government or religious organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic”. </p>
<p>The responses suggest that the pandemic affected residents’ access to economic activities and opportunities to enhance their well-being. For example, most residents were unable to engage in economic activities. This led to a drastic reduction in their already irregular incomes. Others reported that the<a href="https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2020/03/ghana-authorities-impose-lockdown-on-two-regions-due-to-covid-19-from-march-30-update-3"> lockdown</a> impeded access to regular visits to friends and relatives to express support during sickness or even bereavement. For residents, this was a huge psychological burden. </p>
<h2>A package with no punch</h2>
<p>Our findings point to key weaknesses in the various interventions.</p>
<p>Firstly, they did not help people when it came to social, physical and human aspects of everyday urban living. For some residents, the inability to continue educational and skill acquisition programmes was due to cost and limited online learning options. This affected their human capital, truncating initial progress. </p>
<p>Secondly, the most vulnerable people weren’t always targeted. This was due to shortcomings in the way support was given. It was also due to the way beneficiaries were selected and how distribution took place.</p>
<p>For example, politicians and urban bureaucrats publicly claimed and highlighted the influential role of <a href="https://mofep.gov.gh/news-and-events/2020-04-07/government-distributes-food-items-to-needy-individuals-and-households-affected-by-lockdown-through-faith-based-organisations">interventions</a> by public authorities and their partners. However, our survey showed that people on the ground actually viewed the interventions as quick fixes. Some residents reported that while free food and cash transfers were necessary, they didn’t address the root cause of their impoverishment and deprivation. They wanted functional social safety nets and access to secured jobs with regular incomes. </p>
<p>Also, <a href="https://africa-energy-portal.org/news/ghana-government-absorb-electricity-bills-poor-others-enjoy-50-slash">household utility subsidies </a> were targeted at lifeline consumers (those considered very poor) who barely made use of significant amounts of water and electricity. Consequently, these interventions appeared to have limited real impact. One community leader remarked: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We don’t need financial tokens like one-time cash transfer but other important aspects of our lives that make it possible to make our own money: productive opportunities, access to social services such as affordable and quality public transport, health care, and for those of us without high education to acquire new employable skills. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Towards multi-dimensional approaches to future risks</h2>
<p>We outlined one approach that we argue could be beneficial – to develop community based resilient planning platforms as avenues for action oriented collaboration among public, civil society and community groups. This would help ensure that responses to current and future pandemics or uncertainties were aligned with the multiple aspects of urban living. </p>
<p><em>Stephen Leonard Mensah, PhD Student at the University of Memphis, contributed to this study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seth Asare Okyere is part of an international team of scholars receiving funding from the Volvo Research and Educational Fund (VREF)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Kusi Frimpong is part of an international team of scholars receiving funding from the Volvo Research and Educational Fund (VREF)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Abunyewah and Stephen Kofi Diko do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COVID-19-related support only reduced the negative impact of the pandemic on financial capital, and not on the other forms of capitalSeth Asare Okyere, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of ArizonaLouis Kusi Frimpong, Lecturer, University of Environment and Sustainable Development Matthew Abunyewah, Research Fellow, The Australasian Centre for Resilience Implementation for Sustainable Communities, Charles Darwin UniversityStephen Kofi Diko, Assistant Professor, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812322022-04-28T12:20:33Z2022-04-28T12:20:33ZDespite $400 boost, Pell Grants fall far short of original goal to make college more affordable for low- and middle-income students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459608/original/file-20220425-2721-y690dm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5081%2C3390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Pell Grant covers less than 30 percent of the costs to attend a four-year public college. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graduate-waives-during-the-53rd-commencements-of-the-news-photo/1234897146">Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back around when the Pell Grant was <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45418#:%7E:text=The%20federal%20Pell%20Grant%20program,have%20been%20awarded%20since%201973.">created by Congress in 1973</a> to help students from low-income families pay for higher education, it <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45418#:%7E:text=The%20federal%20Pell%20Grant%20program,have%20been%20awarded%20since%201973.">covered 80% of the costs</a> of attending a public four-year college or university. And it covered over 40% of the costs of going to a private one.</p>
<p>Today, thanks to <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76">increases in tuition costs</a> and Pell Grants not keeping pace, they cover less than 30% of the costs at a public university and less than 20% of the costs at private institutions, according an analysis I conducted using College Board data. </p>
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<p>With that history in mind, President Joe Biden’s budget, which <a href="https://www.acenet.edu/News-Room/Pages/Biden-Signs-Major-Spending-Bill.aspx">increases the maximum Pell Grant by $400</a> – from $6,495 to $6,895 – for the 2022-2023 school year, should boost the purchasing power of the grant. But it still falls short of restoring that purchasing power to where it was when the Pell Grant was created nearly 50 years ago, a goal for which many in higher education have advocated.</p>
<p>I make this observation as a veteran university administrator and as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ljqkyw4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researcher</a> who has spent the last 25 years studying what factors enable students to enroll in college and get a degree. </p>
<h2>Pell Grants yesterday and today</h2>
<p>Over $26 million in <a href="https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/student-aid">Pell Grants</a> were awarded to approximately 6.2 million students in the 2020-2021 school year, with the average recipient receiving just over $4,200. </p>
<p>The grants, originally called <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/finaid/prof/resources/data/pell-historical/beog-eoy-1973-74.pdf">Basic Educational Opportunity Grants</a>, were <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/topics/higher-education-funding-and-financial-aid/federal-student-aid/federal-pell-grants/#:%7E:text=Congress%20established%20the%20Basic%20Educational,Pell%20(D%2DRI).">renamed in 1980</a> after the late U.S. Senator <a href="https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/P000193">Claiborne Pell</a>, a Democrat from Rhode Island and an early champion of the grant.</p>
<p>In line with the goals of the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-765/pdf/COMPS-765.pdf">Higher Education Act</a>, which was originally passed in 1965, the grants were designed to be the foundation of college funding for students from poor- and moderate-income families. They were also meant to be a mechanism to help eliminate the gap in the rates at which these students attend college and graduate in relation to their peers from wealthier families.</p>
<p>The idea was that with a Pell Grant, a student could afford to pay the major components of the cost of attendance at a public four-year institution without having to borrow a lot of money or work a lot of hours at a job, particularly off campus.</p>
<p>For students at private colleges, Pell Grants would cover a substantial amount of their education costs, too, but not to the same extent as public colleges, which typically cost less to attend.</p>
<h2>Losing purchasing power</h2>
<p>As tuition prices have increased, the size of Pell Grants – which are subject to approval from Congress – has not kept pace, causing their purchasing power to decline.</p>
<p>This erosion of the value of a Pell Grant has affected college access in a number of ways. Poorer students have become <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/rising-student-debt-harming-us-economy?gclid=Cj0KCQjw06OTBhC_ARIsAAU1yOUU0cMFbIWA0_EZS1C4Zgf4iUWrSKgoHL6lBT2x60AZlI9Q6lL-wDUaArU0EALw_wcB">more reliant on loans</a> to finance their education, as Pell covers less of the costs. </p>
<p>These poorer students are also more likely to be <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021_HSBenchmarksCovidReport.pdf">enrolled in a community college</a> because of the lower prices in two-year colleges. The post-graduation job prospects of a student with a community college degree are <a href="https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/labor-market-returns-sub-baccalaureate-college-review.pdf">not as good</a> as they are for one who graduates with a bachelor’s degree, studies have shown.
And the labor market returns to a community college degree are <a href="https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/labor-market-returns-sub-baccalaureate-college-review.pdf">lower</a> than those of bachelor’s degrees.</p>
<p>Pell Grants have helped close the college access gap. While low-income students <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_302.30.asp">almost doubled the rate</a> at which they enrolled in college after graduating from high school – from 35% in 1975 to 67% in 2016 – high-income students also increased their college-going rate.</p>
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<p>While the poorest students have achieved parity with their middle-income peers, both groups still lag behind the college attendance rates of students from wealthier families. So while Pell Grants have helped close some of the gap, students from higher-income families still attend college at a rate <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_302.30.asp">16 percentage points</a> more than poor students. </p>
<h2>Increasing the Pell Grant’s power</h2>
<p>The $400 increase in the Pell Grant maximum is the largest since the <a href="https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/student-aid">$619 increase in 2009</a>. However, with the price of college continuing to grow, this increase will bring the purchasing power of Pell to just over <a href="https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing">30%</a> of the cost of attending college. This is a small step in the right direction, but not nearly enough to help students from moderate-income families.</p>
<p>Many higher education organizations, including the <a href="https://www.acenet.edu/News-Room/Pages/Statement-Call-to-Congress-Double-Pell.aspx">American Council on Education</a>, the <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/double_pell#:%7E:text=NASFAA%20Advocacy&text=NASFAA%20in%20June%202021%2C%20published,struggling%20to%20meet%20college%20cost">National Association of Student Financial Aid Administators</a> and the <a href="https://www.naicu.edu/issues-advocacy/doublepell/making-the-case">National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities</a>, have called for doubling the Pell Grant. This would be an important step toward having Pell Grants cover as much for today’s students as they did a generation or two ago.</p>
<p><a href="https://research.collegeboard.org/trends">Data from The College Board</a> demonstrates that a $13,000 Pell Grant – roughly double this year’s maximum of $6,495 – would provide 57% of the college costs at a public institution. However, this is still well below what it covered in the 1970s. Without increased support, poorer students will continue to lag their wealthier peers in achieving the American dream of a college education.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald E. Heller has received funding for his research in the past from governmental and non-governmental organizations. None of that funding has influenced this article.</span></em></p>The Pell Grant would have to be doubled in order for its purchasing power to be anywhere near what it used to be, a scholar observes.Donald E. Heller, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, University of San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746862022-01-14T13:36:00Z2022-01-14T13:36:00ZColleges accused of conspiring to make low-income students pay more<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440539/original/file-20220112-21-1ikz9g9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6594%2C4402&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A lawsuit claims that 16 elite U.S. universities give preference to children of donors over other applicants in their admissions. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/license/1264389817?adppopup=true">Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Sixteen universities – including six in the Ivy League – are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/yale-georgetown-other-top-schools-illegally-collude-to-limit-student-financial-aid-lawsuit-alleges-11641829659?mod=hp_lead_pos7">accused in a lawsuit</a> of having engaged in price fixing and unfairly limiting financial aid by using a shared methodology to calculate the financial need of applicants. The schools in question have declined to comment or said only that they’ve <a href="https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/01/10/yale-other-top-universities-sued-for-allegedly-collaborating-to-limit-financial-aid/">done nothing wrong</a>. Here, Robert Massa, a professor of higher education at the University of Southern California, provides insights into what the case is about.</em></p>
<h2>Is this the latest ‘admissions scandal’?</h2>
<p>Although it may be tempting to brand this case as the latest college admissions “scandal,” this lawsuit harks back to an <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED540079.pdf">investigation of 57 private, four-year universities</a> conducted over 30 years ago by the Department of Justice on charges of “price fixing.” In this case, price fixing means limiting how the colleges compete for students by agreeing with one another to offer similar financial aid awards to admitted students.</p>
<p>Back then, groups of these colleges would meet to review the financial aid packages that each college had offered to students. The colleges stated that they did this to assure that each school in the group based their awards on the same financial information from the student, such as family income, number of students in college, non-custodial parent and the like, so that students could select schools based on which school was best for them instead of which school offered the best deal. The colleges did this by all offering aid that would make the price paid the same at each school.</p>
<p>The government, citing Section I of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/sherman_antitrust_act">Sherman Antitrust Act</a>, disagreed. It claimed the practice of sharing financial aid information on students limited competition and, in so doing, had the potential to lead to higher prices for students because without competition, there would theoretically be no reason to attempt to “outbid” a member of the group. </p>
<p>Eventually, all of the schools settled with the government and agreed to stop collaborating on financial aid awards. Congress <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED540079.pdf">exempted colleges</a> from antitrust laws in 1992, but only if they were “need blind” in admission. To be “need blind” means that a college won’t view a student’s application for financial aid prior to deciding whether to admit the student. Further, the exemption allowed these colleges to form groups to discuss aid policies and awards only if they agreed to award all aid on the basis of need and not merit.</p>
<h2>What are these colleges accused of doing?</h2>
<p>The five student plaintiffs in this case <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2022/01/11/class-action-suit-filed-against-top-private-colleges?">accuse these colleges of making low-income students pay more</a> for their college education by agreeing to award them less financial aid than they would have been eligible to receive by using the <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/uploads/documents/FAFSA_Series_Pt10_Federal_Methodology.pdf">standard financial need formula</a> approved by Congress for awarding federal financial aid. This, they claim, is in violation of the antitrust exemption. </p>
<p>Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that the colleges give preference to children of potential donors. In that way, according to the plaintiffs, these schools are not “need-blind” and do not qualify for the exemption. It is worth noting again, however, that “need blind” refers to admission decisions made without viewing a financial aid application. Children of donors who might be capable of a large gift would not likely file an application for financial aid. Therefore, prior to making an admission decision, colleges cannot view a form that doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>The suit also alleges that the schools are not 100% “need blind” because some look at financial aid applications when admitting students from their waitlists. Based on my more than four decades of experience in the field of admissions, this is a common practice at the end of the admissions cycle if space is available in the freshman class, but after most financial aid funds have been awarded.</p>
<p>Further, the suit alleges that these schools award less aid because they agree to use a “shared methodology,” with a formula that calculates higher family contributions toward college expenses than does the “<a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/uploads/documents/FAFSA_Series_Pt10_Federal_Methodology.pdf">Federal Methodology</a>” approved by Congress in the awarding of federal aid. The adjustments made to the formula, the suit alleges, decreases the student’s need for financial aid. Despite that assumption, colleges that agree on financial need calculations could also increase aid eligibility. For example, they could do this by deciding together that they will expect students to contribute less from their summer earnings because of COVID-19’s impact on the job market, therefore increasing their need for aid and decreasing the price they must pay.</p>
<h2>How does this affect the average college applicant?</h2>
<p>Only a small fraction of today’s college students would be affected by these alleged practices. The vast majority of the thousands of colleges and universities in this country must adhere to antitrust laws because they don’t promise to be need-blind, they don’t meet full need and they do not award aid solely on the basis of need. Thus, they do not meet the criteria for an exemption.</p>
<h2>Why should anyone care about this?</h2>
<p>Colleges are not legally required to provide grant aid from their own funds to admitted students who qualify. I have found in my 45 years of experience in college admissions that most colleges provide aid because they are committed to removing financial barriers for as many students as possible.</p>
<p>I also know that colleges believe that their degree leads to upward mobility, and they want to help students achieve their dreams. Of course, no one wants colleges – or consumer businesses for that matter – to engage in practices that eliminate competition and result in increased prices. Operating within the law, colleges must be transparent about how they admit students and award them financial aid. This is essential so families can be confident that they are indeed being treated fairly.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Massa receives funding from Gates Foundation through University of Southern California to study impact of COVID on college admissions nationwide</span></em></p>A scholar weighs in on a new lawsuit that accuses several elite schools of price fixing and conspiring to lower the amount of financial aid offered to low-income students.Robert Massa, Adjunct Professor, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1527852021-01-13T13:21:27Z2021-01-13T13:21:27ZFederal financial aid for college will be easier to apply for – and a bit more generous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377721/original/file-20210108-23-1af4gpd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C76%2C2962%2C1904&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The new application for student financial aid will feature fewer questions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/education-costs-royalty-free-image/177325256?adppopup=true">zimmytws/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: The <a href="https://money.com/fafsa-simplification-pell-grants-spending-bill/">Free Application for Federal Student Aid</a> – better known as FAFSA – is being <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20201221/BILLS-116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf">simplified through the omnibus spending bill</a> that became law in December. The FAFSA is what students must fill out to receive Pell Grants, student loans and many other types of financial aid from states and colleges. Here, Robert Kelchen, an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qrYZ8cwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">expert on higher education policy</a>, explains what the simplification and other changes mean for students and families.</em></p>
<h2>How is applying for federal student financial aid about to change?</h2>
<p>The good news is the FAFSA will go from having 108 questions to 36 questions, and most students will only have to answer a smaller set of questions about family income and household size. The not-so-good news is that this simplified form will not be available to students until October 2022 to determine aid for the 2023-24 academic year.</p>
<p>Also, students with family incomes <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/24269/NASFAA_Deep-Dive_Changes_to_Federal_Methodology_Other_Student_Aid_Changes_From_Spending_Bill">below 175% or 225% of the federal poverty line</a> (which one depends on their family circumstances) will automatically qualify for the maximum <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">Pell Grant</a>, which is the main federal grant given to students from low- to middle-income families as of 2023.</p>
<p>For example, a high school senior in a family of three led by a single parent would receive the maximum Pell grant if their parent’s income is below about $50,000 per year. Currently, only about one in five students with family incomes around $50,000 per year gets the maximum Pell grant. Currently, most students have to file the FAFSA to know the size of their Pell grant.</p>
<p>Automatic qualification will make it easier for students to know how much federal financial aid they can count on getting well in advance of going to college.</p>
<h2>Are any new people eligible who weren’t before?</h2>
<p>The new law also gets rid of a <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2020/12/17/493904/federal-financial-aid-college-students-criminal-convictions/">1994 ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated individuals</a>. This change means that people can get financial help to begin to earn college degrees while they are still behind bars instead of having to wait until their release. This change will benefit everyone, as receiving education while in prison helps <a href="https://www.rand.org/blog/rand-review/2016/01/course-correction-the-case-for-correctional-education.html">reduce the chances that someone will return to prison</a>.</p>
<p>Also, Pell Grant eligibility is being reset for students who went to colleges that closed while they attended. This means these students can finish their studies elsewhere. Without this change, anyone who had exhausted their Pell eligibility after 12 semesters would likely struggle to find the money they need to finish up their degree at another college.</p>
<h2>Is the ‘expected family contribution’ a thing of the past?</h2>
<p>Yes – sort of. Ever since 1992, the FAFSA has generated an “<a href="https://studentaid.gov/help/efc">expected family contribution</a>.” This number determines how much money students and their families can receive in federal financial aid. It is based on how much money the federal government expects students and their families to contribute toward the price of their education.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/how-financial-aid-betrays-the-modern-family/501818/">families are often unable or unwilling</a> to pay this amount of money. The formula <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2014/05/15/examining-new-legislation-to-simplify-federal-financial-aid/">has also been adjusted over the years</a> to decrease the number of students who receive the maximum Pell Grant, requiring families to pay more for college. In reality, the expected family contribution provides a rough ranking of families’ resources to help the federal government and others give out limited aid dollars.</p>
<p>Beginning in October 2022, the government will ditch the term “expected family contribution.” It will instead rely on a “<a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004158.pdf">student aid index</a>,” the same term that had been used before 1992, that more accurately reflects how the FAFSA is used to determine financial aid. The index also does not send the message that students have to contribute a certain amount.</p>
<p>But in reality, the student aid index is still the amount that the federal government will expect students and families to pay for college.</p>
<p>In good news for students and their families, the law allows for the student aid index to be as low as -$1,500 instead of being limited to zero. This is something that <a href="https://www.nasfaa.org/uploads/documents/FAFSA_Series_Pt5_Negative_EFC.pdf">I have called for</a> <a href="https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jsfa/vol47/iss1/2/">in my research</a> because it allows students to get more financial aid and helps colleges and states identify students with the greatest financial need. The change in the student aid index will not give students more financial aid from the federal government, but it will allow them to obtain up to $1,500 more in grants, loans and other financial aid from other sources.</p>
<h2>Is the government increasing federal student financial aid in any way?</h2>
<p>The government is also <a href="https://www.ncan.org/news/544866/Congress-Finalizes-Funding-to-Avoid-Government-Shutdown-Provide-Additional-COVID-Relief.htm">increasing the maximum Pell Grant to $6,495</a>, a $150 increase, in the 2021-22 academic year. This is basically enough to keep up with inflation. A bigger change is that more students will qualify for the maximum Pell Grant because of increases to the income limits for receiving the grant. But while more students will receive federal grants, students with the greatest financial need will not see increases in their Pell grants other than to keep up with inflation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Kelchen previously received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators to conduct research on expected family contributions.</span></em></p>Congress passed a new law in late 2020 that will change how students apply for money for college. An expert explains what the changes mean for students and families.Robert Kelchen, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1430712020-09-03T12:26:02Z2020-09-03T12:26:02ZDoes publishing tuition prices influence college choice?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353676/original/file-20200819-42876-4yf2op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5190%2C3488&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families and students need a clear understanding of what makes a college affordable for their enrollment decisions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/shocked-teenage-student-calcuating-credit-card-debt-royalty-free-image/1220753112?adppopup=true">Peter Dazeley/Photodisc via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>A federal effort to identify less affordable colleges <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720937672">makes little difference</a> in students’ decisions of which college to attend, according to my new study. </p>
<p>The Education Department has maintained four lists of what it deems to be the nation’s priciest colleges in its online <a href="https://collegecost.ed.gov/affordability">College Affordability and Transparency Center</a> since 2011, as required by Congress. <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/affordability.html">Lawmakers created this requirement intending</a> to help students and families make “better” decisions on where to enroll. </p>
<p>In addition, I found no evidence that colleges on these lists cut tuition or boost their financial aid. Instead, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720937672">the tuition and financial aid provided at these colleges the year after being included on one of the lists</a> were strikingly similar to colleges that were not included on the lists because they were slightly less expensive.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>These findings call into question how useful these lists are.</p>
<p>Students and their families want to know the affordability of colleges they may want to attend. However, their interests can be driven by where students live, what they wish to study and other factors. For those reasons, lists of colleges that are the least affordable across the United States are likely not as helpful as information about the affordability of a personalized list of schools that the student is interested in attending. The Education Department’s <a href="https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/">College Scorecard</a> provides that kind of information, which makes it even more difficult for the affordability lists to be useful.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>To be sure, it’s not clear how reliable the information in the college affordability lists is or if American families are even aware they exist. For example, the federal government reports that some institutions are only on the list due to data errors that were submitted to the federal government.</p>
<p>Other issues are likely to play a major role in the ability of the lists to influence the behavior of students and colleges. The <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Have-US-Shame-Lists-/144909">health of the economy</a> may influence what it costs to go to college, the amount of financial aid available, who gets a college education and where students enroll. Students are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000050">less likely</a> to enroll in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216653204">colleges that are far from home.</a> Also, decreases in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.07.007">state funding for higher education</a> will drive future changes in price of college and availability of financial aid. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>At present, Congress requires both college administrators and Education Department staffers to gather the information for the affordability lists. If the lists do continue, they should become easier to access so that people can be more aware of them. Currently, anyone seeking this information must visit the website or read about a college’s inclusion through the media. If the lists cannot be made more useful, I believe it might make more sense to stop requiring their creation all together. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominique Baker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A researcher examines how consumers use a federal list of the most and least affordable colleges in the US.Dominique Baker, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Southern Methodist UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1351522020-04-02T12:32:36Z2020-04-02T12:32:36Z5 ways that the coronavirus will change college admissions this fall<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324659/original/file-20200401-23121-6662ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C69%2C5126%2C3302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schools may compete more aggressively for students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/empty-auditorium-royalty-free-image/76529798?adppopup=true">Uppercut Images/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: The new coronavirus is spreading across the United States just as many high school seniors were applying to colleges or awaiting acceptance letters. Here, Robert Massa, who teaches about higher education at the University of Southern California and is a former admissions dean from Johns Hopkins University and Dickinson College, offers insights into five ways the COVID-19 pandemic could affect a student’s quest to attend the school of their choice.</em></p>
<h2>1. More time</h2>
<p>Due to the uncertainties surrounding the health and financial implications of the pandemic, many colleges will not have filled their classes by the <a href="https://www.fastweb.com/college-search/articles/gear-up-for-national-decision-day">traditional May 1 deadline</a>. Colleges that are concerned about not meeting their numerical enrollment goals will likely be flexible in allowing students to apply, even at this late date.</p>
<p>To give students more time to visit and consider other factors, a <a href="https://www.nacacnet.org/news--publications/newsroom/college-admission-status-coronavirus/">number of colleges have pushed back their deposit deadline</a> to June 1. For the most part, these are schools that historically have not filled their class by May 1. The more selective institutions are <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-Why-More-Colleges-Are/248277">keeping</a> the May 1 candidates reply date.</p>
<p>If you have a deposit deadline from one school that is May 1 and another that is June 1, and you need more time to decide, appeal to the May 1 school to give you more time. Depending on how close that college is to filling its class, it may be flexible.</p>
<h2>2. A better shot</h2>
<p>If a student has applied to one of the most selective, strongest universities – which <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/09/a-majority-of-u-s-colleges-admit-most-students-who-apply/">represent less than 4%</a> of the four-year public and nonprofit private colleges in the U.S. – they will be just as hard to get into, at least initially, as they’ve been in the past. Those schools are, however, likely to have longer wait lists this year, primarily because of the uncertainty surrounding international students and whether they will be able to travel to the U.S. And if they can’t, more students may be admitted from the waitlist than in past years.</p>
<p>But, if students have applied to one of the vast majority of the other selective colleges - including the 16% that admit between a fifth and half of their applicants – it is likely to be somewhat easier to get in for several reasons.</p>
<p>Because of the economic consequences of coronavirus, as many as a fifth of students think they may have to abandon their first choice college to attend a school that is more affordable, according to a <a href="https://www.artsci.com/studentpoll-covid19">survey conducted in March</a>. In addition, that survey found that a college closer to home would be a more viable choice than a first-choice institution for 35% of students. Taking these factors into consideration, colleges are likely to admit more students than they did last year because they expect that more of their admitted students will ultimately opt to stay closer to home or to attend a more affordable school.</p>
<h2>3. Bigger scholarships</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/324706/original/file-20200401-23105-1ulckyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colleges may offer bigger financial aid packages to woo more students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/education-costs-royalty-free-image/104491054?adppopup=true">alexsl/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Colleges are worried that the health calamities and concerns and the economic fallout from the pandemic will result in more students declining admission offers. For this reason, I believe colleges will be likely to offer students more money in an effort to get them to enroll. The competition for student enrollments will be intense.</p>
<p>Schools may offer bigger scholarships to students who decline an opportunity to enroll. That’s because last September, the National Association of College Admissions Counseling settled an antitrust lawsuit with the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/12/16/justice-department-sues-and-settles-college-admissions-group%22%22">Department of Justice</a>, thereby allowing colleges to recruit students who had already committed to attend another institution by awarding them more money. Previously, the association’s ethics code had forbidden this kind of poaching.</p>
<p>Consequently, students may have to decide whether to stick with the original school they selected, even if it doesn’t offer as much tuition help.</p>
<h2>4. More need-based aid may be available</h2>
<p>If a family is affected by the economic fallout from COVID-19, they may appeal for additional need-based financial aid. The financial aid system estimates parents’ ability to pay on income that was earned two years ago. Due to COVID-19, income earned in the first quarter of 2020 may not predict a family’s total 2020 income. For that reason, it will be important for families to work with the financial aid office of the colleges on their list to help them take a lower family income into account when calculating the family’s eligibility for financial aid. It is important for families to explain the need for more financial aid during the application process or certainly pre-deposit – not after a paying an enrollment deposit.</p>
<h2>5. More virtual visits</h2>
<p>In the past, I always advised students to schedule a day to visit the campus of a school they might attend. Among other things, I would tell them to request a meeting with a faculty member in major they might consider, sit in on at least one class and to meet with an admissions officer and a financial aid adviser if appropriate. The big open houses for admitted students are great, because you get to meet potential classmates, but they are not the same as visiting campus during a school day.</p>
<p>Visiting a campus may not be feasible since so many colleges have shut down for the rest of the spring semester. But many <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/03/16/colleges-develop-strategies-recruiting-students-without-campus-visit">colleges are now hosting virtual visits</a> complete with live tour guides and interactive Q&A sessions. Some have also built upon existing social network platforms to encourage engagement with members of their campus community. In addition to these staged visit programs, you can also request to meet with a professor on a video chat. You can even ask to visit an online class.</p>
<p>The visit really isn’t about the buildings or the beauty of the physical space. It’s about the people with whom you will live and learn. Hopefully you can get a good feel for that through the virtual version.</p>
<h2>Final decisions</h2>
<p>Whether to stray from a top college choice in these uncertain times is a decision that students and their families must make. At some point – likely long before this entering class graduates from college – the pandemic will be over and life as we knew it will return. Parents and students should make this decision carefully, of course, and should consider what is in the student’s best interest going forward in a post-COVID world.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-daily">Our newsletter explains what’s going on with the coronavirus pandemic. Subscribe now</a>.</em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Massa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Colleges will likely offer bigger financial aid packages to compete for students amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak, a former admissions officer says.Robert Massa, Adjunct Professor, Rossier School of Education, USC, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1347302020-03-30T12:15:54Z2020-03-30T12:15:54ZWhat early Christian communities tell us about giving financial aid at a time of crises<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323663/original/file-20200327-146662-fsh230.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C13%2C1176%2C916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apostle Paul and his followers collected aid, likely for early Christians.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_Paolo_Pannini_-_Apostle_Paul_Preaching_on_the_Ruins_-_WGA16977.jpg">Giovanni Paolo Panini /Hermitage Museum via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sometime in the late second century A.D., Christians in the city of Rome <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">organized</a> a collection to send to the followers of Jesus in the city of Corinth. </p>
<p>Modern-day scholars don’t know what the crisis was that prompted the donation – it could have been a plague or a famine. What they do know from fragments of a letter sent by the Corinthian bishop, Dionysios, is that a large sum of money was shipped to Corinth.</p>
<p>As a scholar of early Christianity, I have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/assembling-early-christianity/1DF721088E8AAC0B8CB76FD099DA891D">written</a> about this act of generosity. At a time when countries across the globe are struggling to fight the coronavirus and its economic impact, I argue modern society could learn from the actions of these early Christians. </p>
<h2>Sharing resources</h2>
<p>Some of the earliest Christian texts, written in the first and second centuries A.D., even before the time of Dionysios, show evidence for the pooling of economic resources. </p>
<p>The letters of the apostle Paul, written during the first century, are among the earliest sources for Christian life. These letters <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249498">frequently</a> <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249533">discuss</a> aid that Paul and his followers collected in Greece and Turkey. The aid was intended for the “saints” in Jerusalem – likely a group of early followers of Jesus. </p>
<p>Paul <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249570">says in his letters</a> that the purpose of the aid was to “remember the poor” in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Scholars debate whether Paul hoped to help a community in financial need or to show Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem that Paul’s gentile converts were real members of the Jesus movement. </p>
<p>Paul got contributions from multiple cities and regions. But this was the exception rather than the rule. The pooling of resources and their use among the early Christians were generally <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9872/pdf">directed locally</a>. </p>
<p>Later literary evidence provides many examples of local charity.</p>
<p>The second-century “Acts of the Apostles,” which provides a history of the early church, contains legends about Jesus’ apostles shortly after his death. One such <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452249815">story</a> describes how Jesus’ followers organized a commune in Jerusalem soon after his death. Members relinquished property rights and shared everything in common. </p>
<p>Similarly, the “Pastoral Epistles,” a collection of letters from the second century, <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=452250761">speak of a fund</a> that entitled widows, provided they were over 60 and had no other family to support them, to financial support from the community.</p>
<p>Two texts written by Roman Christians in the second century, the “<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html">Shepherd of Hermas</a>” and the “<a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-firstapology.html">First Apology</a>” of Justin Martyr, a Christian philosopher, show that local groups in the city collected offerings from their members that could be used for the common good.</p>
<p><a href="http://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/">Literature</a> from this period shows that local, organized groups were common in ancient cities, ranging from burial societies, to guilds, to devotees of particular gods. Members of these groups paid dues that helped to fund burials, communal meals and other social activities. </p>
<p>These groups provided community, but also helped to manage risk.</p>
<h2>A collection for Corinth</h2>
<p>By the end of the second century, a network of Christian groups in Rome had begun directing some of their local capital toward non-local needs. This included helping Christians who had been sent to the mines, which may have been linked to persecution of Christian communities.</p>
<p>This network also <a href="https://www.fortresspress.com/store/product/9780800627027/From-Paul-to-Valentinus-Christians-at-Rome-in-the-First-Two-Centuries">provided</a> financial support for impoverished Christian groups in other cities. </p>
<p>Dionysios wrote a number of letters to Christian communities in the eastern Mediterranean regarding matters relating to theology, sexual practice and persecution of Christians. Fragments of these letters survive in the <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">accounts</a> of Eusebius, a fourth-century Christian historian. </p>
<p>Dionysios’ letter to the Romans mentions the financial aid that was collected in Rome and sent to Corinth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323669/original/file-20200327-146712-18s7nsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ruins of Corinth show that there might have been a plague or another disaster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rmarksphotography/1633314880/in/photolist-3ukaBo-a84HcQ-3ufPFZ-3ukh2m-QdkaQy-YU3aJj-3ukjoQ-29pmw5J-DvbLxv-2caRbLg-LALFPt-5msJdk-2T3sfc-MqKg24-a81QPv-2T7ca1-2T7T4U-29pmrNY-qbWcHv-2T7SBQ-M77BsL-29pmqAs-Q2LM5E-My78aH-qBzNNw-2caR1XD-2caRdFZ-2pEHz9-2b4UcV1-29pmpPY-29pmrmW-NpF87P-M77XEu-Gp9g4x-M77ZaU-My7CxF-5xMQjq-Mv2KFY-NpFbMp-My7pDp-Q2LKjW-MqKuNH-2caR8jr-21hUxch-My7kF4-2caR9GB-2c6o7JN-29pmrb5-My7Jh6-2aM74Lp">bighornplateau1/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Archaeological <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/assembling-early-christianity/1DF721088E8AAC0B8CB76FD099DA891D">remains</a> from Corinth around this time speak to a heightened concern over health. During this period, healing deities appeared for the first time on local Corinthian coinage. It was during this time that the first inscriptions honoring doctors appeared.</p>
<p>There may have been fears of a plague, or an economic downturn in the city. The archaeological record indicates a marked drop in imports to the city at this time. Regardless of the cause, Corinth’s Christian community found itself in trouble. </p>
<p>When a network of Christians in Rome learned about the situation in Corinth, a local leader named Soter organized a collection to provide aid, according to Dionysios. Thanking the Romans for their gift, Dionysios <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.ix.xxiii.html">speaks</a> about how the gift was part of a longer tradition in this network of Roman Christians: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“For from the beginning this has been a custom for you, always acting as a benefactor to siblings in various ways and sending financial support to many assemblies in every city, thus relieving the need of those in want and supplying additional help to the siblings who are in the mines.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A network of support</h2>
<p>This story offers a window into an early shift occurring within some forms of early Christianity. </p>
<p>While early Christians had formed networks that provided for hospitality and the sharing of news, ideas, and texts, sharing money was definitely not the norm in the second century. </p>
<p>For example, news, ideas and texts moved through the network of <a href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ignatius.html">Ignatius of Antioch</a>, the bishop of Antioch in the middle of the second century. However, despite the fact that the community in Antioch was experiencing distress, financial help was not offered.</p>
<p>Dionysios’ letter is an indication of how some early Christian networks had begun to grow extensive and stable enough to direct their resources both to local and non-local needs. </p>
<p>Further, this could happen because members of this network of Christian associations thought of themselves as “siblings,” as family. Sibling – or, in Greek, “adelphos” - was the name most frequently used by Christians for members of their associations.</p>
<h2>Christians and crises</h2>
<p>This impulse to channel care into the wider world during a crisis appears to stands in sharp contrast to how a few high-profile American Christians reacted early in the coronavirus pandemic, and as time considered.</p>
<p>Jerry Falwell Jr., a prominent evangelical leader and then-president of Liberty University, was <a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/criticism-mounts-after-liberty-universitys-jerry-falwell-jr-welcomes-back-students-amid-coronavirus-outbreak">heavily criticized</a> after announcing that <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/coronavirus-liberty-university-jerry-falwell">students would be allowed to return to campus</a>. He’s said the concerns about the virus are <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/coronavirus-liberty-university-jerry-falwell">overblown</a>. </p>
<p>Conservative political commentator, Glenn Beck, who has <a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/journeys-faith-paula-faris-glenn-beck-mormon-faith-63341070">spoken often of his faith</a>, urged the government not to sacrifice the economy for the sake of protecting the vulnerable, elderly, and immunocompromised. </p>
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<p>On his March 24, 2020 radio show, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/03/25/coronavirus-glenn-beck-trump/">Beck said</a>, “I would rather have my children stay home and all of us who are over 50 go in and keep this economy going and working even if we all get sick. I’d rather die than kill the country. ’Cause it’s not the economy that’s dying, it’s the country.”</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/19/most-white-evangelicals-satisfied-with-trumps-initial-response-to-the-covid-19-outbreak/">polling</a> by the Pew Research Center released on March 19, 2020, a majority of white evangelicals believe “that the crisis has been blown out of proportion by the media.” </p>
<p>This stands in contrast to the impulse among some early Christians, and, no doubt, many modern Christians as well. In times of crisis, they sought to connect and share.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cavan W. Concannon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the late second century, some Christian groups in Rome began directing financial aid toward people living in another city, who were going through a crisis. That act of giving has lessons for today.Cavan W. Concannon, Associate Professor of Religion, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295322020-01-14T13:48:02Z2020-01-14T13:48:02ZWorrying about being drafted doesn’t mean you’re disloyal – it’s an old American tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309793/original/file-20200113-103982-12rv029.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large group of American male Reserve Officers Training Corps students gather to protest the U.S. draft in the late 1930s. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/large-group-of-american-male-rotc-students-gather-to-news-photo/3201252?adppopup=true">Anthony Potter Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fear of imminent war and a draft have escalated in the wake of U.S. forces killing Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in early January. </p>
<p>Misinformation spread across social media <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2020/jan/06/fact-checking-misinformation-about-iran-and-us-mil/">platforms</a>. The Selective Service System’s <a href="https://twitter.com/SSS_gov/status/1213126921804042241?s=20">website</a> crashed on Jan. 3. </p>
<p>Some people even received fraudulent texts, supposedly from the Army Recruiting Command, telling them that they had been <a href="https://recruiting.army.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2051787/urgent-news/fbclid/IwAR27_An-Iuv9WSz8nWdUZpDwp07mO3Cgx2sUr90O1YMIco9bMU5TDiUYO5g/">selected</a> for the draft. </p>
<p>But there is no draft in the United States at the moment and there hasn’t been one since 1973, when the Vietnam War ended. A 1979 law renewed the <a href="https://www.sss.gov/Registration/Why-Register">requirement that men register</a> with the Selective Service on their 18th birthdays, but the agency cannot conscript anyone without approval from both houses of Congress and the president. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the fear felt by young men and those who love them was real, and it’s a fear with a history.</p>
<h2>Draft avoidance is not new</h2>
<p>American men have long looked for ways to avoid the draft. In the wake of Soleimani’s death, some young men took to Twitter, threatening to <a href="https://twitter.com/davidstfu/status/1213016349737246720?s=20">cancel</a> their federal student loan applications because the law requires them to be registered with the Selective Service in order to qualify for financial aid. But this is only the latest iteration of attempted draft avoidance behavior.</p>
<p>Most people associate the 1960s, when the Vietnam War was raging, with draft resistance. Stories about how to beat the draft traveled widely then by <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RK1XoEXCoVEC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=what+did+you+do+in+the+class+war+daddy&source=bl&ots=p6dorZ9ROc&sig=ACfU3U04EkePmvl2v8SwTvwgjBQORAtT6Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVvICevPTmAhUSCM0KHVHfAa44ChDoATABegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=what%20did%20you%20do%20in%20the%20class%20war%20daddy&f=false">word of mouth</a>. By 1972, rumors about the lengths to which men would go to fail their pre-induction physicals had become common enough that scholars of folklore had <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7PKPDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA240&lpg=PA240&dq=%22folklore+of+draft+resistance%22&source=bl&ots=Clpc0o1DXS&sig=ACfU3U3lI8E6MaD7sSGovXFLNDRv8xn0IA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDqdvAvfTmAhWbB80KHQiTD_QQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22folklore%20of%20draft%20resistance%22&f=false">noticed</a>. Reports of men tattooing obscenities on their bodies, traveling to Tijuana for surgery to ruin rather than fix knees, or even hiding live animals in bodily cavities during their exams made the rounds. </p>
<p>But draft resistance has much earlier origins in the U.S. During the Civil War, poorer white men in the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/civil_war/ConscriptionAct.htm">North</a> and the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/656480/pdf">South</a> felt especially targeted by draft laws that offered wealthier white men legal means to avoid military service. </p>
<p>In the Confederacy, their discontent eventually forced a <a href="https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/twenty-slave_law#start_entry">change</a> to the law, limiting the ability of the wealthy to evade the draft. In the North, poor white men’s fear and resentment famously led to <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html&title=The+New+York+City+Draft+Riots+of+1863&desc=">draft riots</a> in New York City in 1863. Over the course of five days, mobs of disgruntled white workers and their families targeted government buildings and then African Americans and black-owned buildings and businesses. They blamed the government for the draft and African Americans for the war, especially in the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation earlier that year.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309791/original/file-20200113-103971-8m3vdx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A World War II recruiting poster, based on an earlier one from World War I, featuring Uncle Sam and the words ‘I Want You.’ Designed by James Montgomery Flagg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-war-ii-recruiting-poster-featuring-uncle-sam-and-the-news-photo/615317060?adppopup=true">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During World War I the Selective Service depended on <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2018/06/wwi-draft/">massive public media campaigns</a> in order to convince men that they should <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Uncle_Sam_Wants_You.html?id=Wc-DRZJ8OwIC">comply with the draft</a>. While most ultimately acquiesced, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781403961754">local boards faced significant resistance</a>. </p>
<p>But even during World War II, a moment of supposed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1941/12/12/archives/city-calm-and-grim-as-the-war-widens-loyalty-and-a-determination-to.html">unity and resolve</a> to beat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, American men balked at the draft. While the lasting memory is of the “Greatest Generation” rushing to join up in the wake of the attack on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1941/12/15/archives/sunday-recruiting-amazes-officers-hundreds-volunteer-for-army-navy.html">Pearl Harbor</a>, their willingness is more myth than reality. </p>
<h2>Babies over bombs</h2>
<p>It is true that almost 80% of American men born in the 1920s eventually served in the military during World War II and relatively few declared themselves as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/perilousfight/social/objectors/">conscientious objectors</a> or actively resisted the draft.</p>
<p>But millions of men searched for legal ways to avoid qualifying for the draft in the first place. It was only after the Selective Service tightened the regulations governing deferments that the federal government was able to pull so many men into uniform.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501739583/rough-draft/">my own research</a> has shown, when Congress authorized what would become the World War II draft in 1940, 65% of the 17 million men who registered received dependency deferments. This meant that fathers and married men without children would not be drafted.</p>
<p>Many had rushed to the altar. Documents in the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/147.html#147.2.2">National Archives</a> show that marriage rates for draft-aged young men jumped by 25% between 1940 and 1941. Birth rates similarly spiked. Congress eventually amended the law to allow only those dependents conceived or acquired by marriage or adoption before Pearl Harbor to guarantee a deferment. </p>
<p>This change led the Selective Service to develop detailed policies about how to measure the approximate date of a baby’s conception. A pregnancy started before Dec. 7, 1941, would gain the new father a deferment, but those started after that date would not guarantee similar privilege. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C38%2C1102%2C429&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309786/original/file-20200113-103974-6cdvh1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Army sent out notices on Jan. 7, 2020 that a draft had not been instituted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recruiting.army.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2051787/urgent-news-army-recruiting-discredits-military-draft-texts/">U.S. Army Recruiting Command website screenshot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Digging for deferments’</h2>
<p>Efforts to avoid the draft during World War II extended to women, as well. In mid-1942, an estimated 500,000 wives quit their war jobs in order to strengthen their husbands’ claims to a dependency deferment. </p>
<p>Attempts to tighten dependency qualifications led to one of the uglier political battles of the war, with lawmakers and local draft board members <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774632,00.html">vowing not to induct</a> even one father. One senator warned that inducting fathers would lead to <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/40597215/children_wolf_packs_seendeseret/">“wolf packs”</a> of mischief-causing children roaming the nation.</p>
<p>The War Department, however, needed more men, and there simply weren’t enough who were not husbands or fathers to meet that need. When the manpower requirements of total war forced the issue, lawmakers finally relented and allowed the drafting of husbands and fathers. By mid-1945, only <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/selective-service-and-victory-the-4th-report-of-the-director-of-selective-service-1944-1945-with-a-supplement-for-1946-1947/oclc/3585954">0.5%</a> of men still held their dependency deferments. </p>
<p>Similarly, men who managed to obtain deferments from the draft because their work in industry and agriculture supported the war effort held on to their jobs. </p>
<p>Men’s attitudes toward the draft are clear from a survey of California shipyard workers, who were exempt from the draft. Shipyard workers who were healthy enough to serve in the military rarely quit, while those whose health problems made them ineligible for service quit with impunity.</p>
<p>Across the country, young men, with help from their families, looked for ways to avoid sacrificing their time, money and bodies to the war. Kansas fathers bought land for their sons to farm. Mica miners in North Carolina, who provided an essential war material, went “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Selective-Service-North-Carolina-World/dp/B0007EQ0KI/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=selective+service+North+Carolina+world+war+II&qid=1578880893&sr=8-2">digging for deferments</a>.” </p>
<h2>Threats of jail</h2>
<p>Military manpower officials have always had to grapple with men’s (and now women’s) fears and self-interests, regardless of the degree and nature of foreign threat. </p>
<p>When the draft has been active, policymakers had to deploy the threat of jail time along with the promise of benefits, like low-interest home loans and college tuition, to entice men to comply with the draft. In our current era, when the military is staffed solely by volunteers, they have had to increase exponentially the <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286139">availability of those benefits</a> in order to appeal to individuals’ self-interests. </p>
<p>The Department of Defense has made health care, education, housing and more available not only to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines but also to servicemembers’ families in order to keep the military fully staffed. Recruitment materials, studies have shown, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674035362">work best</a> when they focus on individual attainment rather than ideals of honor or patriotism, as ideology is rarely <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/5-reasons-soldiers-join-army">strong enough</a> to overcome citizens’ aversion to self-sacrifice. </p>
<p>Most young people have come to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/us/military-enlistment.html">expect</a> the military to operate without them, and those who choose to enlist do so <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/demographics-us-military">voluntarily</a>. </p>
<p>But worries of a new war in the Middle East coupled with the ensuing social media storm upset the delicate balance the <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/all-volunteer-force">All-Volunteer Force</a> has reached with the American populace. Americans’ fear of and reluctance to participate in the draft came roaring back to the surface. </p>
<p>That fear appeared in a new form – social media – but the fear itself is an old one.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Rutenberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An Iranian general’s killing sparked fears of war and a draft in the US. Those are old fears, says a scholar who contends it’s a myth that during the two world wars, men signed up in droves to fight.Amy Rutenberg, Assistant Professor of History, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1170682019-05-17T13:45:50Z2019-05-17T13:45:50ZStates – not just Congress – should unlock student financial aid for people in prison<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274467/original/file-20190514-60563-1e6whlh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many states prohibit people from receiving state financial aid for college in prison.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/police-officers-locks-door-prison-corridor-789621847?src=OFXvj3CBgHEevhykLaw_ug-1-2">Mike Dotta from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to higher education in prison, much of the <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Ending-Ban-on-Pell-Grants-for/245481">media</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/437810-restore-pell-grant-eligibility-to-people-in-prison">advocacy</a> focus is on trying to get Congress to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-federal-student-aid-should-be-restored-for-people-in-prison-115215">lift a longstanding ban</a> on giving Pell Grants to people serving time. </p>
<p>While a <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-lee-durbin-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-restore-educational-opportunities-for-those-incarcerated-and-improve-public-safety?fbclid=IwAR3RGMes3-thVUcyrWaU3GfXMt2bhqrz-wpa6OcX_ikL3_4IUNMlXcUS2GQ">bipartisan effort</a> to restore Pell Grant eligibility to people in prison has stirred optimism among <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/143161/">advocates</a>, the top Republican on the House Education Committee – U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, of North Carolina – questioned whether the federal government should make federal money available to people in prison. </p>
<p>“I do not understand why we want to burden people all over this country to pay for programs for prisons by giving them Pell Grants when the states themselves can take care of this,” Foxx said during a May 9 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yypt2fTxPuA">congressional hearing</a> on how to improve college completion rates.</p>
<p>In a follow-up email to The Conversation, a spokesperson for Foxx wrote that the congresswoman believes that “more work can and should be done to educate incarcerated individuals.” She also stated that the congresswoman believes the federal government is “not the only solution, and that states have a leadership role they must play.”</p>
<p>I believe Foxx is right that states could fund higher education in prison. However, when I examined state laws and policies nationwide, I found that many states – just like <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/congress-should-reinstate-pell-grants-incarcerated-students">Congress in 1994</a> – have <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/596/CUSTER.pdf?1557867364">explicitly banned incarcerated people</a> from receiving state financial aid grants.</p>
<h2>Grants off-limits</h2>
<p>As part of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RqGQZOkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> on policies that affect people who were impacted by the criminal justice system, I analyzed the state statutes, regulations and program manuals for at least <a href="https://www.nassgapsurvey.com/survey/program_finder/program_finder.asp">357</a> active, state-funded grant programs for college students. Approximately 37% – or 131 of them – across 26 states explicitly deny aid eligibility to incarcerated students or students with criminal convictions. </p>
<p>To understand why the state bans on financial aid were enacted, I reviewed historical documents and interviewed former state policymakers who created the bans. </p>
<h2>HOPE lost in Georgia</h2>
<p>One of the most well-known state scholarship programs is the <a href="https://gsfc.georgia.gov/hope">Georgia HOPE Scholarship</a>, an initiative of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/us/politics/zell-miller-feisty-democrat-who-sided-with-gop-dies-at-86.html">late Democratic Gov. Zell Miller</a>.</p>
<p>A former staffer in Gov. Miller’s administration told me that a 1994 audit found that incarcerated students enrolled in courses through private nonprofit colleges were using what was then called the HOPE Grant, a flat US$500 per semester scholarship.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274468/original/file-20190514-60537-trgzbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=676&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, right, stands with President Clinton’s Chief of Staff Leon Panetta before graduation ceremonies at Princeton University in 1996. Clinton, who spoke at the commencement, invited Miller to join him at the graduation because of the success of Miller’s higher education program in Georgia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-Jersey-Unite-/f585fc93f8e6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/258/0">Charles Rex Arbogast/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Zell_Miller_Crime.htm">tough-on-crime</a> Gov. Miller – who was facing his November 1994 reelection – this finding of prisoners using taxpayer funds was a political problem. If the public or his opponents learned that his prized program was being used by “criminals,” it could cost him the election. The governor directed his staff to keep the issue quiet. After Miller’s narrow electoral victory – <a href="http://sos.ga.gov/elections/election_results/1994/gov.htm">51% to 49%</a> – his staff issued new administrative <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/598/GEORGIA_REGS.pdf?1557867825">regulations</a> in spring 1995 that stopped the flow of <a href="https://gsfc.georgia.gov/sites/gsfc.georgia.gov/files/2020-HOPE%20Scholarship%20Public.pdf">HOPE</a> money to students in prison. As a result, <a href="https://gsfc.georgia.gov/regulations">incarcerated students are not eligible</a> for any of the scholarships administered by the Georgia Student Finance Commission.</p>
<h2>Indiana shuts prisoners out</h2>
<p>Similarly, in 2011 the state of Indiana changed its <a href="http://iga.in.gov/legislative/laws/2018/ic/titles/021#21-12-3-13">laws</a> to prevent incarcerated people from receiving the <a href="https://www.in.gov/che/4506.htm">Frank O’Bannon Grant</a>, the state’s largest need-based financial aid program. The program awarded more than <a href="https://www.in.gov/che/files/2018%20%20Financial%20Aid%20Report%20Final.xlsx">$178.6 million</a> in fiscal year 2018.</p>
<p>In the wake of the Great Recession, the Indiana state budget, like those of other states, was facing <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjX_cnq6pviAhUBbKwKHVOTBdIQFjABegQIAxAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.indianafiscal.org%2FResources%2FDocuments%2FIFPI-FY-2010-Closeout-Report.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3ULYyRvg2K-QzU8qKMcSR1">massive cuts</a>. But during this time, the number of state grant recipients <a href="https://www.in.gov/che/files/2012-09-12_Indiana_Financial_Aid_Program_Evaluation(1).pdf">grew</a>. This kind of growth <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport1/">often occurs</a> during economic downturns as unemployed people return to college to gain new skills and credentials. </p>
<p>To explore where to cut, the budget officers in Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office audited scholarship spending, a governor’s office staffer told me. They learned that incarcerated students were receiving millions of dollars in state financial aid. One news report stated that 2,500 prisoners got about <a href="http://ccweek.com/article-2517-ind.-cuts-off-inmate-grants,-limiting-prisoner-education.html">$9 million</a> in O'Bannon grants in the 2009-2010 academic year – nearly a third of the $30 million in O'Bannon grants awarded that year.</p>
<p>So budget staff proposed eliminating their aid eligibility. The Republican-controlled Indiana legislature passed the new law in its <a href="http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2011/HE/HE1001.1.html">2011 budget bill</a>, which had a swift impact on Indiana’s prison higher education programs.</p>
<p>Without student aid to pay for tuition costs, the six public and private colleges that offered credit courses in Indiana prisons <a href="https://www.tribstar.com/news/local_news/idoc-cuts-back-on-inmate-education/article_3da8b3a9-8dce-57cf-b8c9-14dbdec4d619.html">stopped doing so</a>. They also <a href="https://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2012/07/04/what-indiana-will-miss-with-the-state-prisons-college-programs-gone/">let go of hundreds of faculty</a> and <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/17088/">lost millions</a> in tuition revenue.</p>
<h2>A chance to act</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/597/CUSTER.pdf?1557867499">dissertation</a>, I argue that state governments should restore financial aid eligibility to incarcerated students.</p>
<p>As other scholars have <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-federal-student-aid-should-be-restored-for-people-in-prison-115215">pointed out</a>, restoring grant aid to the thousands of qualified incarcerated students could yield <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-federal-student-aid-should-be-restored-for-people-in-prison-115215">benefits to students and society</a>, including <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/external_publications/EP67650.html">lower rates</a> of people returning to prison. Fewer people returning to prison results in more <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">savings for taxpayers</a>. Research shows prison education also leads to <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">better prospects for employment</a>. </p>
<p>California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Indiana are among the states that <a href="https://www.nassgapsurvey.com/">spend the most money annually</a>
on financial aid for undergraduate students. Yet, incarcerated students are explicitly denied eligibility for the largest grant programs in those states. These programs include the California Cal Grant, New York Tuition Assistance Program, New Jersey Tuition Aid Grant, Pennsylvania State Grant, Illinois Monetary Award Program and Indiana Frank O’Bannon Grant. Restoring state grants to the thousands of qualified incarcerated students in these states would have a large and immediate impact.</p>
<p>Legislators in at least two states have recently tried to amend their financial aid laws. <a href="https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/07/01/nj-close-to-giving-prisoners-access-to-state-financial-aid-for-college-courses/">New Jersey legislators</a> introduced a bill in 2018 to reverse its total ban on financial aid for incarcerated students, and <a href="http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB0030">Tennessee legislators</a> introduced a bill in 2019 to make the <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2018/08/27/tennessee-reconnect-community-college/1109159002/">popular Tennessee Reconnect</a> program available to incarcerated students. None of the bills have made recent advancements towards passage.</p>
<p>It is too soon to tell what Congress will do with the <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/press-releases/schatz-lee-durbin-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-to-restore-educational-opportunities-for-those-incarcerated-and-improve-public-safety">REAL Act</a>, a bill to restore Pell Grants to incarcerated students. The bill is currently scored as having a <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr2168">3% chance</a> of being enacted. </p>
<p>State legislators, however, have an opportunity to unlock financial aid for people in prison.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley D. Custer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The federal government isn’t the only one that has banned student financial aid to prisoners. Many states have enacted their own bans as well, new research shows.Bradley D. Custer, Ph.D. Candidate, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1094052019-01-16T11:42:40Z2019-01-16T11:42:40ZNew debit card for federal student loan borrowers could save money, but concerns linger<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253471/original/file-20190111-43507-103qboi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New debit cards being issued by the U.S. Department of Education could be used to track student spending.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-us-dollar-note-credit-card-776406088?src=lXf5Z4rEC8O5JHfsdY-2QQ-2-4">sakhorn/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Department of Education is about to pilot test a new debit card for students who get federal student loans.</p>
<p>For the bank that gets to issue the card, it means access to a tremendous base of future middle-class clients. For students, it means potential savings since the card has no fees and prevents students from overdrafts. </p>
<p>As a scholar of both payment cards and <a href="http://views.smgww.org/assets/pdf/2008%20JumpStart%20Financial%20Literacy%20Survey.pdf">financial literacy for young adults</a>, I see benefits but also a serious potential downside to the debit card.</p>
<h2>Potential benefits</h2>
<p>Let’s look at benefits first.</p>
<p>By streamlining schools’ <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/17/2018-22646/application-to-pilot-federal-student-aids-next-generation-financial-services-environment-payment">processing of financial aid funds</a>, the administrative costs of distributing approved student aid can be reduced and result in some taxpayer savings.</p>
<p>Second, if the federal government uses its bargaining power to reduce – or eliminate – banking fees for students, it will help lower overall college costs.</p>
<p>Third, some students may benefit by not being able to spend more money than they have. Transactions would be declined if students have insufficient funds on their cards, according to a Federal Student Aid official.</p>
<p>But there are also potential downsides. Banks might use intimate data on student spending habits to sell them an array of profitable products after they graduate. A Federal Student Aid official notes, however, that banks can’t offer participants without their permission on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<h2>Simplifying and streamlining</h2>
<p>The federal student loan program is huge. In the last quarter of 2018, <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/data-center/student/portfolio">42.9 million people</a> collectively had student debt of US$1.42 trillion. Student loan balances <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/average-credit-card-debt-household/">exceed both credit card debt and auto loans</a> and now constitute the largest amount of consumer debt in the U.S. </p>
<p>The federal student loan program is also troubled. According to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-secretary-education-betsy-devos-federal-student-aids-training-conference">nearly 20 percent</a> of federal student loans are delinquent or in default – seven times the delinquency rate on credit card debt. DeVos and others suggest that <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-secretary-education-betsy-devos-federal-student-aids-training-conference">part of the problem</a> is that students may not have been given enough information to make informed borrowing decisions.</p>
<p>A major function of the Federal Student Aid payment card is to handle the “refund” of funds disbursed through the agency. In this context, a refund is the remaining amount of federal student aid given to a student to help support a semester of college, after tuition and other college fees have been taken.</p>
<p>For example, if Makayla’s federal student aid is $10,000 per semester while her tuition and fees are $6,000, Makayla’s refund would equal $4,000. The purpose of the refund is to help pay her other expenses such as books, a computer and personal items. Schools would still be responsible for disbursing funds, as they are now, according to a Federal Student Aid official. </p>
<p>The payment card would be convenient for students since a pre-paid debit card would substitute for a checking account. In fact, the payment card is specified to be totally free for students, with no minimum balance requirements. Historically, about half of campus-based banks have charged fees for their accounts that ranged from <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/12/12/banks-paying-colleges-promote-student-debit-cards-charge-higher-fees-new-rule-has">$1 to 47 annually</a>.</p>
<p>With a prepaid debit card, students can spend only the money they have in their account and cannot rack up large fees for insufficient funds since a debit card purchase will be declined if it exceeds the student’s current bank balance. Aside from protecting the lender, this may also force students to budget and live within their means since they cannot incur additional debt by overdrawing their account balances. It may be embarrassing to have one’s debit card declined for insufficient funds, but at least having a debit card declined is not illegal and won’t cause students to get overdraft fees like they would if they wrote a bad check.</p>
<h2>Securing students as customers</h2>
<p>Why would a large bank be willing to take on a new, complex, rules-ridden project with no fees, and unprofitable student customers who tend to carry low balances but do a large number of transactions? </p>
<p>First, it gives the bank the opportunity to be the primary financial service provider for millions of college students who in a few years time will likely be middle- or upper-class college graduates with multiple, profitable financial needs over their lives. For many college students, this banking relationship may persevere for many years, particularly since mandatory college loan repayments tie students to the bank that provided their student loan for a decade or more after graduation.</p>
<p>There is another, possible, but more insidious motivation for a bank to participate – the acquisition of the student’s financial behavior data which can be used to sell them other bank products, such as credit cards, mortgages, investment accounts and loan consolidations over a lifetime. These valuable data can also be sold to other companies. This benefit to the card-issuing bank is recognized but limited by the U.S. Education Department’s <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/10/17/2018-22646/application-to-pilot-federal-student-aids-next-generation-financial-services-environment-payment">request for proposal</a>, which states that bank use of their student data must be approved by the student loan borrowers themselves each time the bank wishes to use such personal information.</p>
<p>The Department of Education, faced with huge operational costs and default rates in its student loan program, deserves credit for its efforts to reduce these costs so that the invaluable aspects of its program can continue. The debit card can be helpful in reducing costs for the government as well as for students who will save money on banking fees. </p>
<p>The primary downsides of such a payment card depend on how student loan borrower data are used.</p>
<p>In short, the Federal Student Aid payment card will ultimately be seen as a rather small but efficient technological change in the way student financial aid is transmitted. But it will do little, if anything, to lessen the overriding problems caused by unmanageable student loan obligations taken on by many unwitting students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lewis Mandell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new debit card being issued to federal student loan borrowers on a trial basis may save them time and money, but it could also enable a bank to study their spending to sell them more products.Lewis Mandell, Professor Emeritus, Finance Department, School of Management, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/970382018-08-16T10:33:33Z2018-08-16T10:33:33ZI went from prison to professor – here’s why criminal records should not be used to keep people out of college<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232117/original/file-20180815-2915-1l5lr0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The U.S. leads the world in the rate of incarceration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hands-men-desperate-catch-iron-prisonprisoner-1152231590?src=-TIhV6DtK98uVBVNfC6nhg-1-9">kittirat roekburi/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beginning this year, the <a href="https://www.commonapp.org/">Common Application</a> – an online form that enables students to apply to the 800 or so colleges that use it – will no longer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/common-app-criminal-history-question/567242/">ask students about their criminal pasts</a>.</p>
<p>As a formerly incarcerated person who now is now an endocrinologist and professor at two world-renowned medical institutions – Johns Hopkins Medicine and Howard University College of Medicine – I believe this move is a positive one. People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.</p>
<p>While I am enthusiastic about the decision to remove the criminal history question from the Common Application, I also believe more must be done to remove the various barriers that exist between formerly incarcerated individuals such as myself and higher education.</p>
<p>I make this argument not only as a formerly incarcerated person who now teaches aspiring medical doctors, but also as an <a href="https://fromprisoncellstophd.org/meet-the-team">advocate for people with criminal convictions</a>. The organization I lead - From Prison Cells to PhD – helped <a href="https://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Schatz%20Ban%20the%20Box%20for%20Higher%20Ed%20Letters%20combined%20(002).pdf">push</a> for the change on the Common Application.</p>
<p>My own story stands as a testament to the fact that today’s incarcerated person could become tomorrow’s professor. A person who once sold illegal drugs on the street could become tomorrow’s medical doctor. But this can only happen if such a person, and the many others in similar situations, are given the chance.</p>
<p>There was a time not so long ago when some in the legal system believed I did not deserve a chance. With three felony convictions, I was sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking as a prior and persistent career criminal. My prosecuting attorney once stated that I had <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/uplift/this-man-was-told-he-was-a-career-criminal-in-his-early-20s-but-his-career-now-is-far-from-that_2529426.html">no hope for change</a>.</p>
<p>Today, I am Dr. Stanley Andrisse. As a professor at Johns Hopkins and Howard University, I now help train students who want to be doctors. I’d say that I have changed. Education was transformative.</p>
<h2>US incarceration rates the highest</h2>
<p>The United States needs to have more of this transformative power of education. The country incarcerates more people and at a <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf">higher rate</a> than any other nation in the world. The U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of the world population but nearly 25 percent of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/30/does-the-united-states-really-have-five-percent-of-worlds-population-and-one-quarter-of-the-worlds-prisoners/?utm_term=.983f1897ab45">incarcerated population around the globe</a>.</p>
<p>Roughly <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/">2.2 million people</a> in the United States are essentially locked away in cages. About <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2018.html">1 in 5</a> of those people are locked up for drug offenses.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">“‘How I Learned to Read – and Trade Stocks – in Prison,’ by Curtis ‘Wall Street’ Carroll.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was one of those people in prison not so long ago. </p>
<h2>Early life of crime</h2>
<p>Growing up in the Ferguson, North St. Louis area, I started selling drugs and getting involved with other crimes at a very young age. I was arrested for the first time at age 14. By age 17, I was moving substantial amounts of drugs across the state of Missouri and the country. By my early 20s, I found myself sitting in front of a judge and facing 20 years to life for drug trafficking charges. The judge sentenced me to 10 years in state prison.</p>
<p>When I stood in front of that judge, school was not really my thing. </p>
<p>Although I was a successful student athlete and received a near full scholarship to play football for Lindenwood University, a Division II college football program, I found it difficult to get out of the drug business. Suffice it to say, there were people in the drug world who wanted me to keep moving drugs. And they made it clear that they would be extremely disappointed if I were to suddenly stop. So I continued. For this reason, I didn’t view my undergraduate college experience the way I view education now. </p>
<h2>The transformative power of education</h2>
<p>Education provides opportunities for people with criminal records to move beyond their experience with the penal system and reach their full potential. The more education a person has, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/business/economy/a-simple-equation-more-education-more-income.html">the higher their income</a>. Similarly, the more education a person has, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/prison-education-reduces-recidivism-by-over-40-percent-why-arent-we-funding-more-of-it/">the less likely they are to return to prison</a>.</p>
<p>A 2013 <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR266.html">analysis of several studies</a> found that obtaining higher education reduced recidivism – the rate of returning to prison – by 43 percent and was four to five times less costly than re-incarcerating that person. The <a href="https://www.luminafoundation.org/files/resources/its-not-just-the-money.pdf">bottom line</a> is education increases personal income and reduces crime.</p>
<p>Despite these facts, education is woefully lacking among those being held in America’s jails and prisons. Nearly 30 percent of America’s incarcerated – about 690,000 people – are released each year and <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ecp.pdf">only 60 percent</a> of those individuals have a GED or high school diploma, compared to 90 percent of the overall of U.S. population over age 25. And <a href="https://www.libraryindex.com/pages/2528/Characteristics-Inmates-EDUCATION-PRISON-JAIL-INMATES.html">less than 3 percent</a> of the people released from incarceration each year have a college degree, compared to <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html">40 percent of the U.S. population</a>.</p>
<h2>Rejected by colleges</h2>
<p>I had a bachelor’s degree by the time I went to prison but never got the chance to put it to use. Then something tragic happened while I was serving time that prompted me to see the need to further my education. Due to complications of diabetes, my father had his legs amputated. He fell into a coma and lost his battle with Type 2 diabetes. I was devastated. This experience made me want to learn more about how to fight this disease.</p>
<p>While incarcerated, I applied to six biomedical graduate programs. I was rejected from all but one – Saint Louis University. Notably, I had a mentor from Saint Louis University who served on the admission committee. Without that personal connection, I’m not sure I would have ever gotten a second chance.</p>
<p>I finished <a href="https://www.slu.edu/news/2017/october/from-prison-cells-to-phd.php">near the top</a> of my graduate school class, suggesting that I was likely qualified for the programs that rejected me.</p>
<h2>Restore Pell grants to incarcerated people </h2>
<p>Based on the difficulty I experienced in going from prison to becoming a college professor, I believe there are things that should be done to remove barriers for incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people who wish to pursue higher education.</p>
<p>One of those barriers is cost. When the government removed Pell funding from prisons by issuing the "tough on crime” <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36020717">Law Enforcement Act of 1994</a>, <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/the-second-chance-pell-pilot-program-a-historical-overview/">the vast majority</a> of colleges offering courses in prison stopped. Due to the federal ban on receiving Pell grants while incarcerated, most of those serving time are not able to afford to take college courses while in prison. The Obama administration took a step toward trying to restore Pell grants for those in prison with the <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/the-second-chance-pell-pilot-program-a-historical-overview/">Second Chance Pell pilot</a>. The program has given over <a href="http://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Second-Chance-Pell-Pilot-Program.pdf">12,000 incarcerated individuals</a> across the nation the chance to use Pell grants toward college courses in prison.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232115/original/file-20180815-2891-vygh4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Inmate Terrell Johnson, a participant in the Goucher College Prison Education Partnership at Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup, speaks with then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Pell-Grants-Prisoners/6280f45afa1d47cb9bc07fca9967e9bf/127/0">Patrick Semansky/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the program, 67 colleges and universities are working with <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/the-second-chance-pell-pilot-program-a-historical-overview/">over 100 prisons</a> to provide college courses to the incarcerated.</p>
<p>Under the Trump administration, this program is <a href="https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/03/28/the-uncertain-fate-of-college-in-prison">at-risk of being discontinued</a> at the end of 2018. Historically, some have <a href="https://www.c-span.org/congress/bills/billAction/?print/1548194">argued</a> that allowing Pell dollars to be used by those in prison takes precious Pell dollars from people who did not violate the law. However, the current Second Chance Pell pilot funding being directed to prisons, $30 million, accounts for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/24/12000-inmates-to-receive-pell-grants-to-take-college-classes/?utm_term=.349aa52578e5">0.1 percent</a> of the total $28 billion of Pell funding. Even if the program were expanded, based on historical levels, it would still amount to <a href="https://www.c-span.org/congress/bills/billAction/?print/1548194">one-half of 1 percent</a> of all Pell funding. This is justified by the impact that Pell dollars would have in prison in terms of <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/prison-education-reduces-recidivism-by-over-40-percent-why-arent-we-funding-more-of-it/">reducing recidivism</a>.</p>
<h2>Remove questions about drug crimes from federal aid forms</h2>
<p>Federal policymakers could increase opportunities by removing <a href="https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1819/help/fotw12b.htm">Question 23</a> on the federal student aid form that asks if applicants have been convicted of drug crimes. A <a href="http://communityalternatives.org/pdf/publications/BoxedOut_FullReport.pdf">2015 study</a> found that nearly 66 percent of would-be undergraduates who disclosed a conviction on their college application did not finish their application. </p>
<p>Federal student aid applicants likely feel the same discouragement. I felt discouraged myself when I was applying to graduate programs when I came across the question about whether I had ever been convicted of a crime. It made me feel like I was nothing more than a criminal in the eyes of the college gatekeepers.</p>
<p>This question also disproportionately effects people of color, since <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial-disparities/">people of color are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system</a>. Furthermore, the question runs the risk of making formerly incarcerated people feel isolated and less valuable than those who’ve never gotten in trouble with the law.</p>
<p>When people who have been incarcerated begin to feel like they don’t belong and higher education is not for them, our nation will likely not be able to realize their potential and hidden talents. </p>
<p>It will be as if we have locked them up and thrown away the key.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Stanley Andrisse is the executive director of From Prison Cells to PhD, Inc. This organization helps formerly incarcerated people obtain higher education. </span></em></p>Stanley Andrisse was once branded a career criminal and served time in prison. Today, he is a professor at two medical schools and an advocate for higher education for those who’ve served time.Stanley Andrisse, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/954082018-06-25T10:34:20Z2018-06-25T10:34:20ZHow colleges must collaborate to lift up the communities just outside their door<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224566/original/file-20180624-26567-1qqyevp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Contrasting cityscapes, similar challenges </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>From the editors: Universities teach and research, but what impact do they – and should they – have on their local communities?</strong></p>
<p><strong>We asked the leaders of Rutgers University - Newark and West Virginia University to explain their take on this issue given the considerable challenges each of their surrounding communities face.</strong> </p>
<h2>Nancy Cantor, Chancellor Rutgers University - Newark</h2>
<p>The statistics are dramatic. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224123/original/file-20180620-137711-c07wup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers University – Newark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/nancy-cantor">Rutgers University – Newark</a></span>
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<p>Newark is a city with <a href="http://www.njbiz.com/article/20170607/NJBIZ01/170609875/21-companies-from-nj-make-this-years-fortune-500-list">Fortune 500 companies</a> and other corporate headquarters such as Audible, and yet <a href="https://community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/Bridging_the_Two_Americas_rev._5-11a_Without_Crop_Marks.pdf">only 18 percent of its residents</a> hold one of the city’s approximately 140,000 jobs. Sixty percent of the jobs in Newark are held by whites from the suburbs. Newark has <a href="https://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2018/03/newark_mayor_ras_baraka_state_of_the_city.html">US$4 billion of capital investment</a> pouring into its downtown, and yet <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/geo/newark-nj/">the rate of home ownership</a> for its residents is 21 percent, compared to the national average of 63 percent: <a href="https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/report-eviction-rates-housing-affordability">Rates of eviction</a> here are among the highest in the country.</p>
<p>Our university’s motto is that we are not just “in Newark but of Newark,” which is why this next data point hits home particularly hard. Despite having six institutions of higher education in or bordering the city, <a href="http://hechingerreport.org/one-struggling-citys-bold-effort-to-increase-its-number-of-college-graduates/">only 17 percent of Newark residents</a> have post-secondary degrees. </p>
<p>What we as a university should do to change the map of access and opportunity is not a rhetorical question.</p>
<h2>Gordon Gee, President West Virginia University</h2>
<p>While Newark and West Virginia may seem very different, we actually share many economic and social challenges, and our universities share a similar commitment to overcoming them.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224126/original/file-20180620-137717-10s28v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Gordon Gee, president of West Virginia University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://presidentgee.wvu.edu/files/d/3844287c-fdcd-4305-a79e-0f03040f34d3/president-gee-official-portrait.jpg">West Virginia University</a></span>
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<p>Here, the urgent need for change stems from economic stagnation that has led to <a href="http://www.register-herald.com/news/outmigration-west-virginia-s-population-decline/article_98ff5f5a-29a1-5779-8c69-2f69c680ba76.html">an outmigration of our best and brightest</a>.</p>
<p>We have the nation’s <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/58f2b0cb-5ba6-402a-80d0-ed3c6f638d95/west-virginia-employment-update.pdf">lowest workforce participation rate, at 53 percent</a>, while the national average is 63 percent. <a href="https://statisticalatlas.com/state/West-Virginia/Educational-Attainment">Our college attainment rate</a> is also the nation’s lowest, with fewer than 20 percent of citizens age 25 and older holding a post-secondary degree.</p>
<p>Economic decline has in turn generated hopelessness and despair, fueling the opioid epidemic ravaging our state, which <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/mar/23/evan-jenkins/does-west-virginia-lead-nation-overdose-drug-death/">leads the nation in overdose deaths</a>. </p>
<p>As one response, we helped create <a href="http://wvforward.wvu.edu">West Virginia Forward,</a> an unprecedented collaboration with Marshall University and the state’s Department of Commerce, joining with business and government leaders to identify the state’s assets and pair them with economic trends. For example, we are <a href="https://energy.wvu.edu/appalachian-storage-and-trading-hub">helping develop the Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub</a> to leverage the region’s abundant natural gas as a foundation for a job-rich petrochemical processing industry.</p>
<p><strong>What kind of impact are your universities having? What meaningful difference are you making in the lives of everyday Newarkers and West Virginians?</strong></p>
<h2>Nancy Cantor</h2>
<p>We also, like West Virginia University, are collaborating with local institutions to promote equitable growth in our city – growth that is fair and includes all Newarkers.</p>
<p>Faculty across Rutgers-Newark are <a href="http://www.clime.newark.rutgers.edu/Making%20Newark%20Work%20for%20Newarkers%3A%20Housing%20and%20Equitable%20Growth%20in%20the%20Next%20Brick%20City">applying their expertise</a> to propose antidotes to <a href="https://www.clime.newark.rutgers.edu/commentary/op-ed/dont-let-starbucks-fool-you-were-not-gentrifying-and-how">gentrification</a> and <a href="http://www.clime.newark.rutgers.edu/publications/report/housing-studies-examine-displacement-newark">displacement</a>. The university is hosting two initiatives designed to promote learning at all levels in the community. The Newark City of Learning Collaborative puts on <a href="https://npl.org/event/secrets-to-college-admissions-central-ward/">“college knowledge” events</a> at public libraries. <a href="https://www.expressnewark.org/">Express Newark</a> uses 50,000 square feet of a 1901 landmark downtown building to bring together residents, local artists and scholars to create – among other things – the story of today’s Newark through <a href="https://www.shineportrait.com/education">studio portrait photography</a>. </p>
<p>All these initiatives in turn connect to the <a href="https://admissions.newark.rutgers.edu/paying-for-college/ru-n-top">university’s financial aid program</a>, which has helped us <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/honors-college-rutgers.html">cultivate local talent</a> and increase the number of native Newarkers on our campus by 59 percent since 2013.</p>
<p>Rutgers-Newark is among the <a href="https://www.margainc.com/">12 percent</a> of universities anchored in urban America. Alongside other major anchor institutions such as businesses, City Hall and hospitals, we joined forces to launch in June 2017 <a href="https://www.newarknj.gov/news/newark-unemployment">Hire.Buy.Live.Newark</a>. Together with <a href="http://rbhs.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences</a> we aim to make 220 hires under this initiative: After only a year we are halfway there. And we’ve increased local procurement to 25 percent. These numbers show what is possible when anchors collaborate.</p>
<h2>Gordon Gee</h2>
<p>West Virginia’s economic woes did not develop overnight, but are, in many ways, the product of more than a century of absentee ownership of resources. We have <a href="https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/state/data/wv.html">exported our coal, our forests</a> and, most damaging of all, <a href="http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/hsc/pubs/briefs/008/default.htm">our people</a>.</p>
<p>We have also suffered from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629617303341">a lack of economic diversification</a>, leaving us vulnerable to market swings.</p>
<p>West Virginia Forward is built upon a firm belief that higher education can and must do more. </p>
<p>Only six months into this initiative, the most observable impact is that the <a href="https://wvtourism.com">West Virginia Tourism Office</a> has incorporated the <a href="https://wvforward.wvu.edu/files/d/c6478e7d-a4a8-457c-b1b8-7e5c8f67842f/wvu_presentation-wvforward-final_092717.pdf">findings from a McKinsey consulting report</a> into its annual plan and launched a new, data-driven campaign. More than 20 West Virginia University deans, faculty and staff from three different colleges and units are assisting with branding, outreach to tourists and the design of pricing regimes for lodging and state parks. Now, with summer vacation season here, we await the impact of the resulting <a href="https://wvtourism.com/">“Almost Heaven” campaign</a> – and <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia/articles/2018-04-11/almost-heaven-west-virginia-starts-new-tourism-campaign">the giant billboards in nine cities</a> of West Virginia’s neighboring states. </p>
<p><strong>When you look at the national higher education landscape, how many other similar initiatives do you see? How much of a need is there to replicate what you do and what do you say to people who question whether these initiatives are worth the time, money and trouble?</strong></p>
<h2>Nancy Cantor</h2>
<p>Our two universities are certainly not alone in doing this kind of work. </p>
<p>In only nine years, for example, the <a href="https://www.margainc.com/aitf/">Anchor Institutions Task Force</a> has attracted 700 individual members – from universities to health care organizations, cultural institutions and corporations – all of whom <a href="https://www.margainc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/AITF_Literature_Review_2015_v_1.pdf">believe that</a> “the great social problems of our time…will likely not be solved without the active, democratic, collaborative participation of anchor institutions.” </p>
<p>Within the academic world, as recently as this February, 31 metropolitan universities responded to a call to deploy their resources <a href="http://www.cumuonline.org/cumu-members-named-to-higher-education-anchor-mission-initiative/">“to enhance the economic and social well-being of the communities they serve.”</a> From <a href="http://www.sandiego.edu/envisioning-2024/pathways/anchor-institution.php">San Diego</a> and <a href="http://www.funderscollaborative.org/strong-economy/central-corridor-anchor-partnership/">Minneapolis</a> to <a href="https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="http://www.lehman.edu/about/">the Bronx</a>, institutions of higher learning are partnering with local public schools, tackling local health disparities and helping to reverse the destructive marginalization of all but the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html">top 1 percent of Americans</a>. </p>
<p>Who, after all, will populate our colleges and universities as the U.S. undergoes a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/book/diversity-explosion/">diversity explosion</a> if we don’t intervene to reach the talented black and brown and poor students too often relegated to underperforming, <a href="https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity">segregated K-12 schools</a>? How will we drive the innovation economy and reap the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/interviews/qa-11077">“diversity bonus”</a> if <a href="http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/">unemployment</a> continues to haunt the fastest-growing populations in our communities? </p>
<h2>Gordon Gee</h2>
<p>Having spent most of my career leading public research universities, I am pleased to see increased emphasis on engagement that stimulates regional and state economies. </p>
<p>Five years ago, the <a href="http://aplu.org">Association of Public and Land Grant Universities</a> <a href="http://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/economic-development-and-community-engagement/innovation-and-economic-prosperity-universities-designation-and-awards-program/index.html">recognized 58 institutions</a> as “Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities” that are fostering strong partnerships with government and industry to support prosperity. <a href="https://businessleadersformichigan.com/">Business Leaders for Michigan</a>, for example, a private, nonprofit organization that brings together state businesses and universities has – since its launch in 2009 – <a href="https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/pubContent.aspx?d=22184#toNote23">helped with the creation of 250,000 jobs in the state</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aplu.org/about-us/">“Expanding engagement”</a> is at the heart of what land grant universities are committed to. To commit to community engagement helps to counter the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/20/republicans-skeptical-of-colleges-impact-on-u-s-but-most-see-benefits-for-workforce-preparation/ft_17-07-20_collegessince2015/">erosion of public faith in higher education</a>.</p>
<p>If each college and university works toward its own purpose, we can build a culture of collaboration, not competition, between institutions. Today’s problems are too big for any one person, department, university or sector to solve alone. We must expand our thinking about the ways business, government, higher education and other sectors can work together. </p>
<p>The stakes could not be higher.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Cantor is a member of the Presidents Subgroup of Anchors Institution Task Force and co-editor with Earl Lewis of the book series, Our Compelling Interests, within which The Diversity Bonus, appears. The following foundations have provided support for the RU-N initiatives cited: Prudential (Foundation), Ford Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Victoria Foundation, Turrell Fund, Foundation for Newark’s Future, Bank of America Foundation, PSEG Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Gee currently serves on the board of trustees of the National 4-H council; the steering committee of the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative, Council on Competitiveness; the Business Higher Education Forum; and the board of directors, Limited Brands. He is author of the forth-coming book Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good and a co-author of Leading Colleges and Universities: Lessons From Higher Education Leaders. He is a current or past member of various other higher education and business committees and groups.</span></em></p>Universities teach students and produce research – but do they have responsibility to engage with the communities that surround them? Two university presidents explain why their answer is an emphatic yes.Nancy Cantor, Chancellor, Rutgers University - NewarkGordon Gee, President, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944582018-04-05T10:46:05Z2018-04-05T10:46:05ZHoward University student protest: 3 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213311/original/file-20180404-189816-b34gd1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students have been protesting conditions at Howard University for several days.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_University#/media/File:Howard_University_logo.svg">en.wikipedia.org</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: In order to gain more perspective on the underlying issues of the student-led protest at Howard University, which is now in its seventh day, The Conversation reached out to Marybeth Gasman, a leading scholar on historically black colleges and universities, commonly referred to as HBCUs. What follows is a brief Q&A with Gasman</em>.</p>
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<p><strong>HBCUs are often portrayed as more <a href="https://medium.com/@DrMichaelLomax/6-reasons-hbcus-are-more-important-than-ever-6572fc27c715">nurturing environments</a> for black students than predominantly white institutions. But the current student protest at Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent HBCUs, seems to seriously call that rosy portrayal into question. Among other things, students at Howard are complaining about issues that range from lack of housing to indifference to sexual assault on campus to financial malfeasance. Why is there so much trouble in paradise?</strong></p>
<p>The research on nurturing and supporting environments at HBCUs pertains to <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736801">faculty and student relationships and also the relationships between peers</a>. Research also tells us that the area that Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough has long called “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=nOO8RZ5IuwMC&pg=PT27&lpg=PT27&dq=Bermuda+Triangle+and+Walter+Kimbrough&source=bl&ots=osfwqWkB3I&sig=PXuhd5iTJAWLk1bQ7G_Shl8y9DM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip1uyjoqHaAhUqneAKHSYPBYwQ6AEIXzAL#v=onepage&q=Bermuda%20Triang">The Bermuda Triangle of HBCUs</a>” (the offices of the financial aid, the registrar, and the bursar) and how well those three offices are run is a problematic area for many HBCUs. My own <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1400&context=gse_pubs">research</a>, and research that I conducted along with <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED527585">Nelson Bowman</a> as well as <a href="https://works.bepress.com/marybeth_gasman/28/">Sibby Anderson-Thompkins</a>, drawing upon interviews with over 4,000 HBCU alumni, finds that problems in this area are the number one reason why HBCU alumni do not give back to their alma maters. It is vital that HBCUs conduct internal and external audits in this area, just as all colleges and universities should.</p>
<p>I also think it is important to not see HBCUs as “paradise.” There are aspects of HBCUs that are wonderful and supportive, but they are complex institutions that are all very different. They are similar in design to all colleges and universities, and thus messy and sometimes complicated; all colleges and universities have problems in various areas. If you look around the nation, you find <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/eight-scandals-that-ended-college-presidencies/2011/11/21/gIQA4diYiN_blog.html?utm_term=.e0588a53a37f">financial aid, sexual assault and financial mismanagement</a> at all types of colleges and universities. In the case of Howard, it is a very prominent HBCU and thus attracts a great deal of attention. In addition, <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1201&context=gse_pubs">research</a> shows that many people paint HBCUs with a wide brush — blaming what happens at one on all of them. It’s the same thing people do with African-Americans — the actions of one person are used to describe everyone. That’s how racism works and it is often used against HBCUs. We don’t see the problems of one majority institution being used to describe other majority institutions.</p>
<p><strong>Howard University gets <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/howard/funding.html">nearly $200 million</a> in direct funding annually from the federal government and is the only HBCU to get direct federal funding. How could or how should this special relationship with the federal government come into play given the issues that students are currently raising?</strong> </p>
<p>Yes, they receive direct funding from the federal government through Congress, as does deaf-serving <a href="http://www.gallaudet.edu/">Gallaudet University</a>. </p>
<p>If federal financial aid dollars were misused, then Congress or the Department of Education could be involved. That said, it is important that Howard University properly steward the federal funds (or any funds) and this was not the case in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/03/28/howard-university-fires-six-employees-after-investigation-into-misappropriated-funding/">alleged misappropriation of funds at Howard</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Some members of HUResist – the student group that is leading the protest at Howard – have indicated that <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Howard-U-Sit-In-Could-Be-the/243012">they hope students at other HBCUs</a> will rise up and demand change as well. To what extent do you think that will happen – and also to what extent do you think that is necessary – and why?</strong></p>
<p>I think you are seeing more <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1160433.pdf">activist and emboldened students at HBCUs</a>. See the <a href="http://www.wral.com/students-outraged-over-conditions-at-hampton-university-frustrations-going-viral-after-town-hall-meeting/17367436/">student voices at Hampton</a>, for example. It’s important to note that with the increased use of social media and protest movements across the nation about various topics (racism, gun control, sexual assault), colleges and universities, including HBCUs, are not immune to protests playing out on their campuses.</p>
<p>One thing I am concerned about is the way that some HBCU alumni and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds (who did not go to HBCUs) are <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CALLTYRONE&src=tyah">making fun of</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HowardUniversity?src=hash">mocking Howard</a> and other HBCUs because of the alleged embezzlement of funds at Howard. This type of behavior doesn’t help Howard or HBCUs even though it may bring laughs on social media. It will be used against HBCUs by those who do not have their best interest at heart.</p>
<p>Instead, people would benefit from researching the situation to get all the facts, meeting with key individuals involved, and working out a plan to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again. If people care about HBCUs, they can be critical, but they also have to take action to make HBCUs stronger and more resilient when these kinds of issues arise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marybeth Gasman receives or has received funding from the Mellon Foundation, Kresge Foundation, ECMC Foundation, Educational Testing Service, the University of Pennsylvania, Council for International Educational Exchange, Lumina Foundation, USA Funds, The Helmsley Trust, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation </span></em></p>As the student protest over conditions at Howard University continues, a scholar weighs in on what the fallout means for historically black colleges and universities.Marybeth Gasman, Professor of Higher Education and Director Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/899692018-01-16T02:24:07Z2018-01-16T02:24:07ZBalancing work and tertiary study is harder now than in 2012: study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201905/original/file-20180115-101502-1qfjahe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many students reported regularly going without necessities including food, medications, fuel and prescribed textbooks.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Students know completing a university degree gives them a better chance of landing a high-paying job, often after surviving financial hardship while studying. But striking a balance between life, work and study appears to be getting tougher. </p>
<h2>Financial stress puts students at greater risk for mental illness</h2>
<p>Australia has experienced progressive higher education policies, a social inclusion agenda and widened tertiary access. This has resulted in a rise in working-class, mature-aged, first-in-family and Indigenous students attending university. But government income support has not been quite so progressive. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/has-the-push-to-get-more-disadvantaged-students-into-universities-been-a-success-65100">Has the push to get more disadvantaged students into universities been a success?</a>
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<p>In fact, in recent decades, Australian governments have overseen an <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook44p/IncomeSupportPayments">ongoing reduction in student financial support</a>. Consequences may include increased student dropouts and precarious student mental health, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obes.12119/abstract">particularly for non-traditional cohorts</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.orygen.org.au/Policy-Advocacy/Policy-Reports/Under-the-radar/Orygen-Under_the_radar_report.aspx">report</a> on university students’ mental health found “high risk” groups for mental health issues included: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>students from rural/regional areas and low socioeconomic backgrounds </p></li>
<li><p>first-in-family students</p></li>
<li><p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students </p></li>
<li><p>international students </p></li>
<li><p>and students with a disability. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Another <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00050067.2010.482109/abstract">study</a> found female students under 34 with financial stresses and in a subsequent year of their degree were at higher risk than other students. Without support, these students were at risk of severe mental illness. Changes to university funding <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/birmingham/sustainability-and-excellence-higher-education">announced</a> in December may add further pressures, including fewer available university places, and graduates needing to repay student loans sooner.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-get-an-unsustainable-policy-for-christmas-89307">Universities get an unsustainable policy for Christmas</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Evidence of students’ hardship is reflected in findings of a recent <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2017.1377741">survey</a> of tertiary social work students. </p>
<h2>Students are having a harder time juggling</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2017.1377741">Findings</a> from a research partnership between the Australian Association of Social Workers and James Cook University help illuminate the difficulties for some students. Through an online survey in late 2015, a sample of 2,320 students from 29 Australian social work programs reported their experiences of juggling life, study and work. </p>
<p>Many questions were replicated from a 2012 <a href="http://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1714715/StudentFinances2012.pdf">study</a> of Australian tertiary students. </p>
<p>Analysis of both studies showed these more recent respondents were doing it tougher. Many students reported regularly going without necessities including food, medications, fuel and prescribed textbooks. </p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<p>Overall, students identified a precarious balancing act of study, family, financial hardship and paid work that was impacting their daily lives, study success and mental health.</p>
<p>Students were asked: as a student, have you at any time had insufficient money for any of the following? </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="kWQ9n" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kWQ9n/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>High numbers of students identified difficulties affording food. Over 50% of students could not afford important textbooks, and more than a quarter of the sample reported having insufficient finances for medications during their studies. </p>
<p>Personal responses from the 2015 survey confirmed students’ struggles. This student found a lack of stable accommodation, clothes, fuel or money for prescription medications was impacting their mental health:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I…had to get medication…and owe pharmacies for scripts, eat toast for days, borrow money for petrol etc, postpone specialist appointments…, trawl through op shops for clothes appropriate for work, go…without textbooks…whilst studying, and my mental health and grades have suffered as a result. For the first three months of semester one this year I was couch-surfing until I could find affordable, stable accommodation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, another student had to choose between petrol and food:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Budgeting to afford petrol to travel to another campus which is a two hour round trip impacts on the ability to afford food for the day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stresses increased while students were completing lengthy field placements:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Working part-time as well as family commitments while on placement nearly killed me. Even doing a part-time placement was hellish…and I was totally burnt out at the end of each one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One student and their partner scarcely survived:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My partner and I were studying full time via distance education…no support from parents…we’re on Centrelink benefits. We barely survived. After those 6 years, we could no longer cope with living in poverty as it had a significant impact on our health, mental health and general wellbeing.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202006/original/file-20180116-53299-1e8jhxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Balancing work, study and family can have serious negative impacts on mental health and well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The above themes were frequently repeated across all survey data collected. </p>
<p>Only 50% of students said they were receiving any government assistance. Many identified that financial hardship was seriously impacting their daily lives. Some said they were burnt out, while others were dropping out. Interestingly, a 2017 <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2017.1344827">study</a> showed student burnout can be a predictor of burnout in the workplace.</p>
<h2>Financial and mental health support needs to change</h2>
<p>One conclusion is that the eligibility for government financial assistance for students is set unfairly high, while the amount paid to students is unsustainably low. Advocacy by the university sector and professional associations, together with students, seems urgently needed for increased government financial support for students who meet an equitable eligibility criteria. </p>
<p>Enhanced support for students’ mental health also is needed. This includes within their professional programs of study. Alongside this, strong university and community mental health networks for students can contribute to a healthier student body and, consequently, a healthier graduate workforce.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author acknowledges the significant work of Len Baglow in the conceptualisation and completion of all aspects of the 2015 research reported here. Len Baglow, formally of AASW, is Policy Advisor with St Vincent De Paul, ACT.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Gair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The percent of students going without food or other necessities has risen since 2012, with students indicating work-study balance was impacting their daily lives, study success and mental health.Susan Gair, Associate Professor, College of Arts, Society & Education, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/799662017-09-12T02:19:06Z2017-09-12T02:19:06ZHow colleges can help students keep out of academic trouble<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185318/original/file-20170908-32330-p65stf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abo Photography/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It happens every fall: <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm">Over two million</a> new students show up at colleges and universities across the United States. But by winter break, hundreds of thousands of them will have a grade point average that places them in an academic status called probation and puts their college educations at risk. </p>
<p>At Michigan State University, where we work, first-year students who go on probation are only half as likely to graduate as those who don’t. This is a big enough problem nationwide that a number of college advice websites offer pointers for <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2012/01/20/academic-probation-i-failed-the-semester-now-what/">students on probation</a> and <a href="https://www.collegeparentcentral.com/2009/11/what-to-do-if-your-college-student-is-on-academic-probation/">their parents</a>. </p>
<p>The question for us, as faculty members and academic administrators at MSU, is what universities can do to help more of these students graduate while, at the same time, making sure our academic standards remain high. </p>
<h2>Defining probation</h2>
<p>At most universities, students are placed on academic probation when their cumulative grade point average falls below a stated level. At Michigan State University that’s below a 2.0 on a 4-point scale, or below a C.</p>
<p>If they remain below that level in subsequent semesters, they’re likely to be removed from the university. If, however, they bring their cumulative GPA back above the cutoff point, they may return to their studies. Many institutions also have a provisional status whereby those students who are making continuous improvement – even if their grades are below the cutoff point – are put on some form of extended probation.</p>
<p>Unlike data on college enrollment and completion, national statistics for academic probation are not tracked. <a href="http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/pell-grants-as-performance-based-aid.html">One empirical estimate</a> is that about 20 percent of students at four-year institutions will end their first year of college in academic jeopardy. </p>
<p>That is not a small number.</p>
<h2>Differential impact</h2>
<p>Though academic probation is a danger that can befall any student, the stakes are particularly high for students receiving financial aid. </p>
<p>Many institutions give scholarships that depend on recipients staying in “good academic standing.” Students receiving federal financial aid must also show that they are making <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/eligibility/staying-eligible">satisfactory academic progress</a> or have taken enough courses and earned high enough grades that graduation seems possible. And so, if a student is put on academic probation, they may lose the financial support they need to continue in college. </p>
<p>Financial aid status isn’t the only factor that makes a difference in how probation affects students. <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED562761.pdf">A recent study</a> showed that among students placed on probation, male students are more likely than female students to leave college voluntarily. Similarly, native English speakers and students with above-average high school GPAs are more likely to leave than nonnative speakers and students with lower-than-average high school GPAs. </p>
<h2>Students at the center</h2>
<p>The question is, if probation has such an impact on students dropping out, how can universities help students avoid going on academic probation in the first place? </p>
<p>A number of colleges and universities are taking this issue seriously and reorganizing to design the college experience with students – and student success – at the forefront. As Vincent Tinto, a <a href="http://www.nacadajournal.org/doi/pdf/10.12930/0271-9517-19.2.5?code=naaa-site">leading expert on student retention</a>, puts it, students need “learning communities that actively involve students, faculty members, and staff in shared learning activities.” Critically, he adds, “no student should be allowed to go through the first year alone, disconnected from other learners in the college.” </p>
<p>Institutions large and small have embraced this approach. At <a href="http://www.lc.iastate.edu/">Iowa State University</a> over 70 percent of first-year students participate in learning communities. All new students at the <a href="http://web.uri.edu/newstudent/uri101/">University of Rhode Island</a> take “URI 101,” a seminar designed to introduce planning for academic success. <a href="http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?alias=academics.utep.edu/esp">UT-El Paso</a> offers learning communities, peer leaders and two academic transition courses. </p>
<p>At MSU in 2011 we launched the <a href="http://nssc.msu.edu/">Neighborhood Student Success Collaborative</a> grouping our residence halls into five separate “Neighborhoods” with their own professional staff and academic advisers. Each of our 8,000 first-year students arriving in the fall of 2017 found a community of support in their new college home and at no extra cost: from tutoring and career planning assistance to fitness classes, a writing center and volunteer opportunities in Lansing and Flint. </p>
<p>Another option is for universities to look carefully at <a href="http://undergrad.msu.edu/news/view/id/132">their essential first-year courses</a> – what is taught and how it is taught. Research has <a href="http://completecollege.org/tag/corequisite-remediation/">shown</a> that talented students who enter college with weaker academic preparation do better in introductory courses if the additional help they need is provided in parallel with the course, rather than in advance through developmental coursework. </p>
<p>Finally, there are ways for university staff to intervene early in the first semester to help students who are doing poorly. </p>
<p>In the fall 2016 semester, for example, MSU faculty filed real-time early warning reports on almost 18,000 of our 40,000 undergraduate students. To be clear, in most of these cases instructors were letting students know they were doing fine. But in the cases where students were doing poorly, these reports were followed up by academic advisers and Neighborhood staff who together with the students put together a plan to deal with the problem. Indeed, such “<a href="http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Early-alert-systems-and-resource-links.aspx">early alert systems</a>” are also being used successfully at other institutions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185549/original/file-20170911-28358-lzgifb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The River Trail Neighborhood Engagement Center at MSU.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stepheni Schlinker</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The bottom line at MSU is that Neighborhoods have made a real difference. Since their implementation, MSU’s academic probation rate for first-semester students has dropped from over 10 percent to just 7 percent. Or put another way, 240 more students started their MSU career on a much more promising trajectory in 2016 than in 2011.</p>
<h2>When things don’t go so well</h2>
<p>Initiatives like MSU’s Neighborhoods may be keeping students off probation, but what can be done to help those who have already been placed on probation make it to graduation? </p>
<p>Universities are trying a variety of approaches. Prime among them are <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/XR7M-EDL5-50U5-052J">“monitored interventions”</a> and “academic coaches.” At <a href="https://www.slu.edu/life-at-slu/student-success-center/student-success-coaching.php">St. Louis University,</a> for example, these coaches are “trained to help [students] improve a wide range of the skills vital to college success” including learning how to wean oneself off Netflix, how to take part in student study groups, and how best to use instructor office hours. </p>
<p>Student success remains a work in progress. There are no silver bullets or one-size-fits-all solutions. Broad empirical evidence of how well existing interventions work is mixed. But universities are learning from one another, and now networks of institutions, like the <a href="http://www.theuia.org">University Innovation Alliance</a>, have begun to test, scale and diffuse practices that have demonstrable effects on student performance. </p>
<p>All these initiatives, of course, require investment on the part of universities. However, we would argue that these costs are small relative to the benefits to students – and to the universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>R Sekhar Chivukula works for Michigan State University, which is directly interested in student success.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen A. Renn receives funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Herbert H. And Grace A. Dow Family Foundation, US Department of Education, and Spencer Foundation.</span></em></p>It’s estimated that 20 percent of first year students are put on academic probation. That’s not a small number. Universities are beginning to tackle the problem head on.R. Sekhar Chivukula, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education and Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Michigan State UniversityKristen A. Renn, Professor of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies for Student Success Research, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/630342016-08-01T03:08:39Z2016-08-01T03:08:39ZWant college to be affordable? Start with Pell Grants<p>In her speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/live-coverage-of-the-democratic-national-convention-day-4/493385/">talked about</a> free college and student debt relief. </p>
<p>Convention speeches are not normally known for providing details of policy proposals, and keeping with tradition, Clinton offered few details of her own. Now that we are past the conventions and into the campaign, presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are likely to speak in more detail about their specific policies.</p>
<p>What is missing in the debate about free college, however, is a discussion of the role of Pell Grants, the centerpiece of the federal government’s student aid programs. These grants, which used to cover almost the entire cost of a college education for poor students, today cover less than a third. The current Republican budget proposal would erode it even further, threatening the ability of students from poor and moderate-income families to attend and graduate from college. </p>
<p>From my perspective as a researcher who has studied questions of college access for two decades, any discussion of free college has to include the role of Pell Grants in college affordability.</p>
<h2>What are Pell Grants and why are they important?</h2>
<p>Pell Grants were <a href="http://www.ihep.org/sites/default/files/uploads/docs/pubs/pell_final_website_may_2015.pdf">created</a> in the 1972 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. This coming academic year they will provide grant aid of up to <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/pell#how-much-money">US$5,815</a> to students from low- and moderate-income families.</p>
<p>Last year, over <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/pell-grants-total-expenditures-maximum-and-average-grant-and-number-recipients-over-time">eight million</a> undergraduates across the nation received a total of about US$30 billion in Pell Grants. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132513/original/image-20160729-25643-134ilq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2011-12, 41 percent of undergraduates received a Pell Grant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=Sb4jucmFppq674Fuw-LyQA&searchterm=student%20debt&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=241241671">Dollar image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Data from the U.S. Department of Education show that in the 2011-12 school year (the most recent data available), <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/datalab/tableslibrary/viewtable.aspx?tableid=10356">41 percent</a> of all undergraduate students received a Pell Grant, almost double the 22 percent of students who received them in 1999. </p>
<p>For most students, the funding they receive from the Pell program outstrips what they receive in aid from either their state or the institution they attend. </p>
<p>Using <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/datalab/powerstats/default.aspx">data</a> from the U.S. Department of Education, I calculated that the average Pell Grant recipient received an amount from that program that was five times greater than what they received in state grant aid and 2.6 times greater than the amount of scholarship assistance received from the institution attended.</p>
<p>Without Pell Grants, in other words, many low-income students would not be able to attend college, or would not be able to attend full time and make good progress toward earning their degree.</p>
<h2>Pell Grant value dips, tuition increases</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/states-and-public-higher-education-policy">book</a> I edited a few years ago, I demonstrated that back in the 1970s, a student attending a public, four-year university and receiving the maximum Pell Grant would have approximately 80 percent of the price of her college education – tuition, housing, food, books and miscellaneous costs – covered by the grant. </p>
<p>If the student had no resources of her own to contribute, the remaining 20 percent of the cost was often made up through state grants, scholarships from the university, work study and perhaps a small amount of student loans.</p>
<p>Today the maximum that a Pell Grant covers is only about <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/trends-student-aid-web-final-508-2.pdf">30 percent</a> of the price of attending college for that same student. The erosion in the value of the grant is due to two reasons: 1) the rising price of college attendance and 2) a drop in the real value of Pell Grants.</p>
<p>Since 1985, average tuition prices at public, four-year colleges and universities have increased <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/published-tuition-and-fees-relative-1985-86-sector">222 percent</a> after adjusting for inflation. The situation at private four-year colleges and community colleges is only slightly better – average prices in the two sectors have increased more than 130 percent in real terms during the same three decade period.</p>
<p>Pell Grants, in contrast, have grown much less rapidly. The average grant increased only <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/federal-pell-award-current-constant-dollars-over-time">30 percent</a> in inflation-adjusted dollars during this same period.</p>
<p>In the latter half of the 1980s and through most of the 1990s, Congress and a series of presidents – Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton – allowed the purchasing value of Pell Grants to decline even further. </p>
<p>The maximum Pell Grant actually dropped <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/federal-pell-award-current-constant-dollars-over-time">19 percent</a> in real dollars between 1985 and 1996. While federal funding over the last two decades has allowed it to regain some of its value, the maximum Pell Grant today is still below the 1975 level in inflation-adjusted dollars.</p>
<h2>Impact of GOP proposal</h2>
<p>As bad as this situation is, it could get much worse. The current <a href="http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fy16budget.pdf">Republican spending plan</a> in the House of Representatives proposes to place a cap on the maximum Pell Grant. What this means is that it would stay at its 2015-16 level for the next 10 years. </p>
<p>While it is hard to predict for sure what will happen to tuition prices over the next decade, it is fairly certain that prices will continue to rise. This will cause the value of the Pell Grant to erode even further during this period.</p>
<p>For example, again, based on my calculations, if college prices increase 3 percent per year over the next decade, and Pell Grants are held at their current level, its purchasing power at public four-year institutions would drop from 30 percent of total college costs today to only 21 percent in 2026. </p>
<p>At private four-year institutions, the Pell value would drop from 17 percent of costs today to only 12 percent 10 years from now. </p>
<p>The Republican proposal, if enacted, would undoubtedly have an impact on the college access and success of students from low- and moderate-income families. Constraining the grant aid available to them from the federal financial aid programs could force more students to drop out of college. Or, students could take longer to earn their degrees, or could afford to attend only a community college rather than a four-year institution. </p>
<p>The impact on college access for these students would be detrimental to the nation as a whole. As President Obama noted in his first <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-barack-obama-address-joint-session-congress">address</a> to Congress in 2009, the future growth of our economy will depend on having more workers with post-secondary credentials. Without a Pell Grant program that keeps pace with college costs, we will be unable to attain this goal. </p>
<p>Clinton and Trump should be talking about the issue of college affordability on the campaign trail. But they need to address all of the policies that help make college affordable for students and their families.</p>
<p>Funding for the Pell Grant program is a critical component of that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald E. Heller has in the past received funding from U.S. public agencies, non-profit organizations, and foundations for his research. He currently is not receiving external funding for his work.</span></em></p>Pell Grants, the federal aid program for low-income students, are down to covering only 30 percent of tuition, from 80 percent in the 1970s.Donald E. Heller, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, University of San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/605852016-06-15T09:49:22Z2016-06-15T09:49:22ZThe truth about for-profit colleges and Trump University<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/31/480214102/trump-university-playbooks-released-by-court-advise-being-courteous-to-media">Documents released</a> in a federal lawsuit against Trump University have put presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the defensive. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is <a href="http://time.com/4353917/hillary-clinton-trump-university/">now highlighting the fraud</a> that is at the center of the case. </p>
<p>In the process, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/01/what-trump-university-has-in-common-with-another-failed-for-profit-college/">many commentators</a> are identifying the Trump University business model as further indication of the fraudulent activity seen to be endemic to all for-profit higher education institutions. </p>
<p>I have been studying for-profit higher education since the late 1990s. While there are some parallels, Trump University is not representative of for-profit higher education. It is not regulated by the same agencies nor does it have to follow the same rules.</p>
<p>In fact, the Trump University case has little to do with the current challenges faced by for-profit higher education in the U.S.</p>
<h2>The for-profit university</h2>
<p>For-profit colleges and universities are educational institutions that operate for financial gain. They have been part of the higher education landscape since the <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/diploma-mills">1800s</a>. For most of their history, they existed apart from traditional nonprofit and public colleges and universities. </p>
<p>For-profits educated students who were not interested in earning a degree and focused on fields that mainstream institutions were ignoring, such as stenography and bookkeeping.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125946/original/image-20160609-7064-r7n94t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How do for-profit universities work?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/23443094212/in/photolist-BHzZaw-bY2FEw-eZWR1d-skSwkL-wF72U-wF6Pa-wF7pR-RGu8t-wF6Y3-ouQ9Ta-8XhNvG-61uVwu-asuh98-8XeLZa-qpiYu4-576zTv-6gUzdY-FXQ4yA-8Ac9Xx-oGNcUm-9XbEi-9Xckt-5hKXVm-4yPopz-4RrtEk-bkB32n-9XchC-ivJ6NV-DUT6RF-r6Jw1L-6w2WJr-6f4EKj-5BW5K2-6fez68-cLPk5j-5hDZ3c-7WwNsq-svtdqR-6w35gt-4QVgbB-4yUWDC-qs2u5U-sm94vQ-5MfmzX-7P8bpB-4yQ2zp-qo2R3u-899kcc-rT8t3-hazjPb">Gage Skidmore</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That separate status changed after the <a href="http://lawhigheredu.com/102-proprietary-or-for-profit-colleges-and-universities.html">Higher Education Act was reauthorized in 1972</a>. Students attending for-profit institutions could be treated just like students at other institutions. They could now get grants and subsidized loans to pay for their tuition. </p>
<p>But, like other institutions that wanted access to this federal money, the for-profits had to agree to <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&dbname=cp112&sid=cp112uqnjG&refer=&r_n=hr177.112&item=&&&sel=TOC_38109&">state, federal and accreditor oversight</a>. </p>
<h2>Accessing aid</h2>
<p>Over the last half-century, more and more for-profits have participated in the federal aid programs. They were attracted to the program, even with the additional oversight, because they could enroll more students and make more money.</p>
<p>There are currently about 3,400 federally funded for-profit colleges and universities in the U.S., <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_105.50.asp">according to official statistics</a>. This is compared to about 2,000 public institutions and 1,800 nonprofits. All of them need to meet
standards of their accreditors, the states they operate in and the U.S. Department of Education. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125983/original/image-20160609-7054-yiezbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For-profits rely on federal aid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/armydre2008/7714200766/in/photolist-cKFi8u-dB3GVB-9kFZh4-3cjrwC-edZStq-5vxVyF-dQCx2Y-k1H7g-8fmgar-4N3XZy-5vSvLu-5y1hEV-nauXNC-5AByeQ-9Nv8dj-5z8Fwo-ontV22-5zhjCN-pDZsh8-4HYGCQ-4HWXEh-pVykUz-5zd2gK-5CAN1U-kmwscx-521iyP-kmwfRX-kmywpW-3kWApz-9NEYMC-5vNbG8-m5pYEi-7RsNQH-9eVrd5-5DgLde-oQrz1m-5zhj4Y-qL5DSN-dv5tUF-mk1sF6-pVSaUu-c7E7if-8Aya3d-aFuhBZ-kmwm2r-5ABxCh-nEz8i-5zd2cK-kmwmD8-5AxiFe">frankieleon</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That students can get grants and take out loans distinguishes for-profit higher education from other businesses – like Trump University – that may claim to educate students. This aid is supposed to serve the <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED525737">public purpose</a> of higher education as being vital to the nation’s well-being and not simply facilitate the pursuit of private profit.</p>
<p>Student aid is also what provides the focus for regulating higher education. There are specific requirements called “<a href="http://www.higheredcompliance.org/resources/program-integrity-rules.html">program integrity</a>” rules that these institutions must follow in order to justify their receipt of student aid. The rules involve how institutions advertise their programs, recruit students and prepare graduates for employment. It is these rules that are causing difficulty for many for-profit institutions.</p>
<h2>What’s going wrong</h2>
<p>For example, one of the rules involves what is known as “<a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/compensation.html">incentive compensation</a>” for student recruiters. For-profits are not allowed to pay employees based on how many students they managed to enroll at the institution or how much financial aid they were successful in getting for students.</p>
<p>In 2002, the Bush administration modified this rule. This came about after a <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/For-Profit-Colleges-Praise-a/13510">former lobbyist</a> for the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, a for-profit institution, was put in charge of higher education policy. The changed rule specified 12 “<a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10370r.pdf">safe harbors</a>” that would not be considered violations. These exemptions allowed for raises to be given to recruiters and other staff as long as there was some <a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/20100426incentivecompensation.pdf">justification for pay</a> other than enrollment increases.</p>
<p>For-profits took advantage of these loopholes to aggressively recruit students. <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_303.20.asp?current=yes">Enrollment</a> increased by 150 percent over the next seven years. </p>
<p>Subsequently, in response to <a href="http://www.nacacnet.org/issues-action/policy/Documents/brief_incentivecomp.pdf">reports of abuse</a>, in 2011, Obama’s Department of Education closed the loopholes. Following this policy change, enrollment at for profits declined by <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_303.20.asp?current=yes">at least 20 percent</a>. </p>
<h2>Dependence on financial aid</h2>
<p>It is important to note that for-profit higher education is dependent on federal dollars to survive. For-profits are not directly subsidized by states like public institutions. And they don’t discount their tuition like nonprofit institutions. Instead they ask students to pay the full cost.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125985/original/image-20160609-7096-2wp6pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For-profits need federal dollars to survive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=student%20loan&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=315781718">Dollar image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a consequence, most institutions get more than 70 percent of their <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/6302014summary.pdf">revenue from federal aid programs</a>. The government prohibits for-profits from getting more than 90 percent of their revenue from government grants and loans. </p>
<p>But oddly, money from veterans’ programs is not included in this calculation. Since these programs are funded from the Department of Defense rather than the Department of Education, they were not part of the Higher Education Act rules. If all government funding was included, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/13/more-profit-colleges-would-fail-9010-rule-if-veterans-benefits-are-included-analysis">many more institutions would cross the 90 percent threshold</a>. </p>
<p>Changing this loophole is on the congressional agenda. But it is being vigorously opposed by the for-profit lobbyists.</p>
<p>The current for-profit reliance on federal money means that the federal government is the primary customer of for-profit higher education. And the one who pays sets the rules.</p>
<h2>Fraud accusations</h2>
<p>To be clear, none of these are issues that suggest for-profits are fraudulent institutions. They are mainly about how for-profit institutions recruit students and whether the jobs students get with a for-profit degree are worth the expense. There are other criticisms connected to their eligibility for federal aid programs.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12115-012-9541-0#page-1">accusations of fraud</a> have dogged for-profit higher education. The biggest case was the collapse and bankruptcy of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/04/corinthian-colleges-bankruptcy_n_7205344.html">Corinthian Colleges</a>. Corinthian had over 100,000 students at its peak, with almost 100 campuses across the country. </p>
<p>But the federal government <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/20/major-profit-chain-faces-bankruptcy-feds-turn-heat">restricted access to student aid</a> in 2014 out of concern that Corinthian was mishandling funds. Later proof of false advertising resulted in a <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2016/03/25/former-corinthian-colleges-to-pay-over-1b-for-defrauding-students/">billion-dollar judgment</a> against the company. </p>
<p>Because of this, former Corinthian students are <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/announcements/corinthian">now eligible for debt relief</a> for the loans they took out to attend. </p>
<h2>Why Trump U is different</h2>
<p>Coming back to the initial question, here’s what’s different about Trump University: To begin with, Trump University is not an <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/that-time-donald-trump-started-a-university-and-an-amazing-blog/102305">accredited</a> institution. In fact, New York authorities insist it was <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-university-its-worse-than-you-think">breaking the law</a> by calling itself a university. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125986/original/image-20160609-7079-f0jzat.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One commentator’s view of Trump U.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/27129606980/in/photolist-HkmjYu-29RVSQ-6wi1we-rfoE5g-rab8n9-rack4W-egjotY-rfowUp-qBVFpX-ryBcrg-rrCR64-rh8ytf-74WPMw-quLeWJ-rrD5cp-rabazA-rh8vMy-rh9xv3-dbSGwx-vMQG5J-8mrygx-cZCKDf-b3Ga9B-quYbLF-cZCLdh-racdFW-cZCJDS-dMg6xj-rpsGhE-rrKB7T-rrD7HM-b3FTCx-rrKFJD-daAsHS-8REDAp-x8oowR-92vnXu-rWKnwC-nQ72U-rWJfw5-segL58-rWHUgf-d1TE27-d1TE81-czTNoy-rWJ8Bd-d1TE5m-8EByBJ-aexKrR-c8cbaC">Mike Licht</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Without approval from the state or oversight from accreditation agencies, students at Trump University couldn’t get federally backed grants and loans. And because it wasn’t part of the federal aid program, none of the program integrity rules applied.</p>
<p>With no federal money at risk, Trump University is simply a case of what New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/02/politics/eric-schneiderman-attorney-general-trump-university-fraud/">“straight-up fraud.”</a> The case is being brought under laws that apply to any business.</p>
<p>Essentially the institution is accused of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-university-its-worse-than-you-think">running a scam</a> where free classes were used to lure in customers for expensive seminars that promised to reveal Trump’s secret of real estate investing. In reality, there were no secrets, only high-pressure sales tactics used to sell <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/08/08/trump-university-why-the-n-y-attorney-general-called-it-a-scam/">expensive seminars</a>. </p>
<p>Most for-profit colleges and universities, however, are not accused of fraud. They are in the cross-hairs primarily because they rely on government money to survive. And for-profits could eliminate much of the scrutiny if they dropped out of the federal aid programs. </p>
<p>Trump University doesn’t have that option. Even if Trump dropped out of the campaign for president, the trouble with his university would remain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Kinser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For-profit colleges and universities have been in a lot of trouble. But the case of Trump University is different. To start with, it cannot even be called a for-profit university.Kevin Kinser, Associate Professor of Education, University at Albany, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/579472016-05-27T02:05:51Z2016-05-27T02:05:51ZIs a tuition-free policy enough to ensure college success?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124215/original/image-20160526-22080-xf9voi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do the most disadvantaged students need for college success?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=jJPm_yhyTe-uRQMiFq79EQ&searchterm=commencement&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=298297466">Commencement image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the U.S., many soon-to-be high school graduates are excited to begin college. Over the past decades, <a href="http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/education-pays-2013-full-report-022714.pdf">rates of college enrollment have increased</a>. In 1950, only 16 percent of young people had at least some college exposure. By 2012, this figure rose to 63 percent. </p>
<p>Such trends should be seen as a positive but for the fact that too many students who begin college don’t finish. Among a recent cohort of students enrolled in four-year degree programs, <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cva.asp">only three in five</a> completed their bachelor’s degree within six years. </p>
<p>Further, socioeconomic gaps in college completion are large. Among students from high-income backgrounds who recently started college, three-quarters earned a degree. In contrast, <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_tva.asp">under half</a> of low-income students who matriculated earned any kind of postsecondary credential. Of particular concern is the fact that gaps in degree attainment <a href="http://www.russellsage.org/research/chartbook/fraction-students-completing-college-income-quartile-and-birth-year">have widened over time</a>. </p>
<p>To address some of these concerns, Democratic presidential candidates have proposed improving college access and success for the most disadvantaged students including making public colleges and universities <a href="https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/how-much-would-hillary-clintons-debt-free-college-plan-save-you-even-if-youve-already-graduated/">debt-free</a> or <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/its-time-to-make-college-tuition-free-and-debt-free/">tuition-free</a>. </p>
<p>In our own research, we have investigated the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716301248">many barriers</a> students can face in accessing and succeeding in college. So, what does rigorous evidence tell us about potential solutions? Is a free college tuition policy sufficient for improving college access and success in the U.S.?</p>
<h2>College costs and financial aid</h2>
<p>Public college costs have risen substantially over time and faster than the rate of inflation, as state and local budget allocations <a href="http://www.basicbooks.com/full-details?isbn=9780465044962">have failed to keep pace with rising enrollments</a>. </p>
<p>Over the two-decade period from 1995 to 2015, the average net cost of college attendance, inclusive of room and board, at public four-year institutions <a href="http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2015-trends-college-pricing-final-508.pdf">has risen from US$8,450 to just over $14,000</a>. For families in the bottom fifth of the income distribution, this implies that sending a child to a public four-year institution would require over <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716301248">40 percent of the annual household budget</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124214/original/image-20160526-22050-3hx01a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Financial aid helps. But is that enough?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=X4LAzmkh4a-fD6N5LQXdUA&searchterm=college%20debt&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=318232658">Dollar image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Providing financial assistance to low-income students does improve college success. <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w15387.pdf">Studies</a> that have rigorously examined the impact of lowering college costs have indicated benefits. For example, the <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w19306">Florida Student Assistance Grant</a>, which provides low-income students with an additional $1,300 grant on top of Pell Grant funds, increased six-year bachelor’s degree attainment rates from 21 to 26 percent. The <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/685442">Wisconsin Scholars program</a>, which provides a $3,500 annual grant for low-income students to attend a Wisconsin public university, similarly increased on-time graduation for recipients from 16 to 21 percent. </p>
<p>However, at least <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2016/04/21-who-would-benefit-most-from-free-college-chingos">one recent analysis</a> should give policymakers and advocates pause about turning to universal free tuition as a strategy for improving college success. <a href="http://www.urban.org/author/matthew-chingos">Matthew Chingos</a> of the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found that such a plan could yield disproportionate benefits to higher-income rather than lower-income students and families across the country. </p>
<p>Therefore, while such a policy may improve outcomes for low-income students, it would also be providing a substantial benefit to students who already have a high likelihood of accessing and succeeding in college. </p>
<h2>Understanding challenges to college success</h2>
<p>An important point to recognize from the Florida and Wisconsin studies is that, even among students who received additional grant funds, college completion rates remained low. How, then, can we improve rates of college success, particularly for those students at greatest risk of attrition? </p>
<p>To answer this question, we must understand the nuanced challenges that students can face, beyond issues directly related to college affordability. </p>
<p>Consider the challenges faced by one student, let’s call her Veronika, in starting her college career. We learned about her experience through ongoing research investigating the factors that contribute to college success. A very strong high school student, Veronika was a mother of two when she was admitted to her state’s prestigious public flagship university. </p>
<p>Although thrilled at the prospect of college, Veronika struggled to identify affordable childcare in the vicinity of the university. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to attend school while also caring for her children. She needed financial aid but also additional guidance.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Veronika received this support through a college success program with which she was affiliated. The program not only helped her locate affordable childcare near campus, but also counseled her to petition for an increase of financial aid to cover the cost. Her initial aid package had not considered child care expenses. </p>
<p>Another student, Marcus, transitioned successfully to college but retained responsibility for supporting his family financially. The dual demands of being a full-time student and working to provide for his family became too much. Marcus stumbled academically, was placed on probation, and lost his financial aid.</p>
<p>The same college success organization stepped in to provide just-in-time financial assistance in addition to guiding him to develop a plan that struck a manageable balance between school and work. </p>
<h2>Low-income students need more than free college</h2>
<p>How much of a difference does it make when students are provided more comprehensive support, including personalized counseling, and not just financial aid?</p>
<p>To inform this question, we collaborated with <a href="http://curry.virginia.edu/about/directory/benjamin-l.-castleman">Ben Castleman</a> at the University of Virginia and <a href="http://www.econ.pitt.edu/people/phd-students">Gumilang Sahadewo</a> at the University of Pittsburgh to rigorously examine the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2726320%22%22">impact of one such progam</a> – <a href="http://www.dellscholars.org/">the Dell Scholars Program. </a></p>
<p>The Dell Scholars program aims to support low-income and first-generation college students by providing a combination of scholarship aid and “…ongoing support and assistance to address all of the emotional, lifestyle, and financial challenges that may prevent scholars from completing college.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124216/original/image-20160526-22086-1sq17pv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Students need other support services as well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=8BCGXdMP8Kv3QlZ3qgYb9g&searchterm=counselling%20students&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=32984956">Girl image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>This support includes prematriculation counseling sessions as well as regular tracking of student progress and follow up, as needed, to guide and support students throughout their post-secondary career. We studied 1,800 Dell Scholars selected from nearly 40,000 applicants over six cohorts and attending hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S.</p>
<p>We found the program led to substantial improvements in bachelor’s degree attainment. For example, for the cohort we could track for a full six years, the program increased bachelor’s degree attainment from 61 to 75 percent. </p>
<h2>Experience from other scholarship programs</h2>
<p>Other studies also point to evidence of college success through comprehensive college supports. </p>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/clotfelter-charles-t">Charles Clotfelter</a>, <a href="http://hemelt.web.unc.edu/">Steven Hemelt</a> and <a href="https://sanford.duke.edu/people/faculty/ladd-helen-f">Helen Ladd</a> investigated the impact of the <a href="http://carolinacovenant.unc.edu/">Carolina Covenant</a>, which supports students from low-income backgrounds to attend University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. </p>
<p>The program began in 2004 exclusively to provide need-based financial aid. By 2007, however, the program also provided students with additional counseling and support services. </p>
<p>The researchers found that the program improved the four-year degree completion rate for qualifying students by <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2769196">eight percentage points</a> but only for those cohorts who were provided not just financial, but also non-financial support. </p>
<p>Similarly, at the City University of New York, the <a href="http://www1.cuny.edu/sites/asap/">Accelerated Study in Associates Program (ASAP)</a> which works with low-income community college students, provides support that includes financial aid, special classes, additional advising and career services, free public transportation and free use of textbooks.</p>
<p>Researchers <a href="http://www.mdrc.org/about/susan-scrivener">Susan Scrivener</a> and <a href="http://www.mdrc.org/about/michael-j-weiss">Michael Weiss</a> found that the program increased associates degree attainment <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2393088">from 18 percent to 33 percent</a> within 2.5 years of students beginning the program. </p>
<p>Critics may argue that ASAP is too expensive, given that it results in substantially higher per student investment. Researchers <a href="http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/hl361/">Henry Levin</a> and <a href="http://www.epi.org/people/emma-garcia/">Emma Garcia</a> have shown, however, that because the program so effectively improved degree attainment, <a href="http://cbcse.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Levin-ASAP-Cost-Effectiveness-Report_092412_FINAL-5.pdf">it led to lower costs on a per-graduate basis</a>. </p>
<p>Taken together, this work points to looking beyond blanket solutions such as free college tuition for all. Many students, and particularly those from low-income backgrounds, face challenges that go beyond simply meeting tuition. </p>
<p>Awarding such students with packages that include financial aid bundled with counseling and other support is likely to yield more success in improving overall degree attainment rates. In contrast, universal free tuition would invest fewer resources where they are needed and more where they are not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsay Page received research funding from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to support the evaluation of the Dell Scholars program. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stacy S. Kehoe received research funding from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to support the evaluation of the Dell Scholars program.</span></em></p>Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have called for making colleges and universities debt-free or tuition-free. Disadvantaged students need more than free college to achieve success.Lindsay Page, Assistant Professor of Research Methodology, University of PittsburghStacy S. Kehoe, PhD Student, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/579392016-05-23T10:12:21Z2016-05-23T10:12:21ZCould a tweet or a text increase college enrollment or student achievement?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123413/original/image-20160520-10353-8ul9rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When do texting, tweeting work?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/garryknight/7003178857/in/photolist-bER864-boFzXZ-Ft5Xgo-6BCFa1-5Q5fr6-aqryhz-AHzBz-8URHGt-edebYm-iCXCMt-nJkxJX-rgjf2s-af4pCw-8V8tAB-5fyta3-kwJtip-68YiR1-dYNhJq-9wExRp-8ModNU-ohaoWW-9n7AtS-d5pe2U-pszrNU-ecS4bj-ctKkzW-dNoPqv-9JfEcZ-f8sjnv-fM2ZcC-eCUmQ8-aUremF-8mFSHR-53upeE-iUiPSs-9wbQGN-6onNpx-6uxDqr-smXDy5-8yNVij-9DaPfM-6KpwXx-aSMgav-CXH8o-hWTp71-8xVZNQ-bLRvp2-6cdxFp-9Zvi9m-718Q3Z">Garry Knight</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Can a few text messages, a timely email or a letter increase college enrollment and student achievement? Such “nudges,” designed carefully using behavioral economics, can be effective.</p>
<p>But when do they work – and when not? </p>
<h2>Barriers to success</h2>
<p>Consider students who have just graduated high school intending to enroll in college. Even among those who have been accepted to college, 15 percent of low-income students <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ssqu.12032/pdf">do not enroll by the next fall</a>. For the large share who intend to enroll in community colleges, this number can be <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.12.008">as high as 40 percent</a>.</p>
<p>There are a number of possible reasons for this attrition: many families <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff_reports/sr739.pdf">overestimate the cost of college</a> because the sticker price of colleges can be much higher than the net price (the sticker price minus the potentially large amount of aid a low-income student could receive); students may struggle <a href="http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/127/3/1205">with complex financial aid forms</a>; there may be <a href="http://econ.msu.edu/seminars/docs/Carrell%20Sacerdote%20College%20Coaching%20Late%20Interventions%207.16.12.pdf">a lack of support</a> to guide them through the application process. So, even when low-income students who are high-achieving <em>do</em> enroll in college, the majority fail to enroll in a college that is comparable <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w18586">to their level of achievement</a>.</p>
<p>Can a few text messages or a timely email overcome these barriers? My research uses behavioral economics to design low-cost, scalable interventions aimed at improving education outcomes. Behavioral economics suggests several important features to make a nudge effective: simplify complex information, make tasks easier to complete and ensure that support is timely.</p>
<p>So, what makes for an effective nudge?</p>
<h2>Improving college enrollment</h2>
<p>In 2012, researchers <a href="http://batten.virginia.edu/school/people/benjamin-castleman">Ben Castleman</a> and <a href="https://www.education.pitt.edu/people/profile.aspx?f=LindsayPage">Lindsay Page</a> sent 10 text messages to nearly 2,000 college-intending students the summer after high school graduation. These messages provided just-in-time reminders on key financial aid, housing and enrollment deadlines from early July to mid August.</p>
<p>Instead of set meetings with counselors, students could reply to messages and receive on-demand support from college guidance counselors to complete key tasks. </p>
<p>In another intervention – <a href="http://siepr.stanford.edu/research/publications/expanding-college-opportunities-high-achieving-low-income-students">the Expanding College Opportunities Project (ECO)</a> – researchers <a href="https://economics.stanford.edu/people/caroline-m-hoxby">Caroline Hoxby</a> and <a href="http://curry.virginia.edu/about/directory/sarah-e.-turner">Sarah Turner</a> worked to help high-achieving, low-income students enroll in colleges on par with their achievement. The intervention arrived to students as a packet in the mail.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123416/original/image-20160520-4475-1x9fhgh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">What happens when an intervention arrives in a mail?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=3hUqWo4dsQ1x4jXBhvu-gg&searchterm=letter%20in%20mail&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=318761603">Mail image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The mailer simplified information by providing a list of colleges tailored to each student’s location along with information about net costs, graduation rates, and application deadlines. Moreover, the mailer included easy-to-claim application fee waivers. All these features reduced both the complexity and cost in applying to a wider range of colleges.</p>
<p>In both cases, researchers found that it significantly improved college outcomes. College enrollment went up by 15 percent in the intervention designed to reduce summer melt for community college students. The ECO project increased the likelihood of admission to a selective college by 78 percent.</p>
<h2>Getting parents involved</h2>
<p>Of course, it’s not just at college enrollment time that nudging can be helpful. Parents also face behavioral barriers while their children are in middle and high school. Many parents underestimate the number of assignments <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Epsb2101/BergmanSubmission.pdf">their child has not turned in</a> as well as the number of school days their <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16356435">child has missed</a>. Unfortunately, schools often do a poor job communicating this information to parents <a href="http://www.civicenterprises.net/MediaLibrary/Docs/one_dream_two_realities.pdf">in a timely fashion</a>. </p>
<p>I tested an intervention that sent text messages to parents about their child’s missed assignments and grades. The messages were frequent – sent four times more often than report cards – and provided detailed information to parents about their child’s missed assignments and grades. Each message listed page numbers and problems students needed to complete so that parents could track their child’s progress.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123418/original/image-20160520-27853-iaepe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The involvement of parents cam motivate children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/moregoodfoundation/5138615947/in/photolist-8Q5KuF-siP2uS-uC5VL-ct8Rq-6dduu-71Kr2J-aGRCxM-6MbZmy-6M7HQv-6M7Kfa-6MbXqm-6Cgx7-nN5dxA-5R2khv-kqWYbY-5LjvJG-31oyD-nyXG49-nHfFbY-2CwbS-6U7v28-fhUbjp-dLgMc-8GcWzL-ajrqZX-2Cwdr-h9PZC-fJYeFd-g1Hd9-6CgwC-6T9H6u-5PgmcR-cqYi9-5gZbNB-pzmWr-eNsbwW-5PkD1L-e1bVZ4-dfkPz-o4cGj-84YGY-rxBUk-bAyYsa-dyn9kZ-5fLGJg-o8WFKH-rxD8J-9d6YmX-5kB5qf-4VYQCe">More Good Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Parents responded by communicating with the school more often and motivating their children to do the work: students turned in 25 percent more assignments, which led to <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Epsb2101/BergmanSubmission.pdf">significant improvements</a> in grades and evidence of increased math scores.</p>
<h2>When there is no impact</h2>
<p>While these interventions are promising, there are important caveats. </p>
<p>For instance, our preliminary findings from ongoing research show that information alone may not be enough. We sent emails and letters to more than one hundred thousand college applicants about financial aid and education-related tax benefits. However, we didn’t provide any additional support to help families through the process of <em>claiming</em> these benefits.</p>
<p>In other words, we didn’t provide any support to complete the tasks – no fee waivers, no connection to guidance counselors – just the email and the letter. Without this support to answer questions or help families complete forms to claim the benefits, we found no impact, even when students opened the emails. </p>
<p>More generally, “nudges” often lead to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/opinion/15loewenstein.html?_r=2&hp">modest impacts</a> and should be considered only a part of the solution. But there’s a dearth of low-cost, scalable interventions in education, and behavioral economics can help. </p>
<p>Identifying the crucial decision points – when applications are due, forms need to be filled out or school choices are made – and supplying the just-in-time support to families is key.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Bergman has consulted with Mathematica Policy Research, McGraw-Hill Education and Upraised Learning to develop scalable education interventions. He has received funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation to test the effectiveness of alerts to parents.</span></em></p>It’s that time of the year when students get ready to enroll in college. But many don’t, even after being accepted. What can be done?Peter Bergman, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546342016-02-24T11:09:21Z2016-02-24T11:09:21ZHow should we measure the size of a university’s endowment?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112165/original/image-20160219-25876-19k1ks5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The statue of John Harvard, the first benefactor of Harvard University</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/4849232899/in/photolist-8ovzZM-858sBw-nypDAr-czKFAh-8qtR7c-8qnfkg-4ym5tR-9XVGXv-d3bDJA-9dMdqe-6sRf8f-e7Pe1f-cEg6Zq-eaDcAF-e5V6SB-6ujzz-cEg793-eaDcEa-e9jsA6-e9q9md-jeZKK-8bRn4y-r15thD-838YMR-83962x-DnKFY1-773HGg-cF9mg7-83caBd-oaxkmM-8ovzVn-2SQ5X-83c9sE-DiCqH3-8oyL6f-8bN4X8-8ovA7c-dyRZg2-83c7zj-8395DX-82t8Ku-8qbCcx-7ytuvh-cF9kXS-6o5Qeo-ke3q5H-by5PUn-8qeLRo-8q7nwg-773NHz">Wally Gobetz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Congress is rattling its saber at colleges and universities with endowments worth U$1 billion or more. Committees from the House and Senate have sent a joint <a href="http://chronicle.com/items/biz/pdf/harvard.pdf">letter</a> to <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Congress-Again-Scrutinizes/235238">56</a> private colleges and universities, asking for comprehensive information about endowment spending and management policies. </p>
<p>Thomas W. Reed, representative for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-08/richest-u-s-schools-could-lose-tax-status-in-endowment-proposal">talking about</a> legislation that would require colleges and universities with endowments of $1 billion or more to spend 25 percent of their endowment earnings on financial aid or forfeit their tax-exempt status. </p>
<p>But what is so significant about the $1 billion mark? Are all endowments with $1 billion so huge that Congress should treat them differently than endowments with less than $1 billion? And are all endowments less than $1 billion so small that Congress should ignore them? </p>
<p>From my perspective as a professor who has <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1124544">studied endowments</a>, the only real significance of $1 billion is that it shocks the public because it sounds like so much money. </p>
<p>What really matters is how much buying power a school needs and how much buying power an endowment has. The bigger a school’s budget, the more endowment is necessary. To figure out which colleges and universities have large endowments, you have to consider a school’s expenses. </p>
<h2>How do endowments work?</h2>
<p>An endowment is like a savings account that exists to support college or university operations. The assets in an endowment usually come from donations. The funds in an endowment are invested; each year a school spends a portion of these returns and then puts the remainder back into the endowment. </p>
<p>In good financial times, an endowment allows a school to spend more on priorities like financial aid, research budgets or professor salaries. In bad financial times, an endowment acts like a rainy day fund to ensure that schools will not have to dramatically reduce spending in important areas. </p>
<p>Because an endowment’s primary purpose is to support institutional operations, the strength of a $1 billion endowment is relative to the size of an institution’s expenses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112167/original/image-20160219-25879-1qid2e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How does an endowment work?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/9731367@N02/7643873724/in/photolist-cDsRmh-b4PNL-9VAqRa-ADzhKr-4HQZWd-fQo3cD-9Px5o-6v5ACQ-9VCot1-7qu6x-cFrCB-omurUD-aFAHsp-eecbFK-7Qmd-3e1FpU-92FCG5-fKcz8e-oofpvV-RgsDf-omhzdu-a2YaDD-eKaR58-bopgvh-9VzCpn-48FKMH-DuWArf-576m2j-62QFjm-aFAKZi-Mbx9b-aFAtAX-8JCrTE-ocaM29-aFDfrk-62QF77-86tWQ3-8x2kD7-deoiw-2jacHy-3CFcEf-5mPhd4-oC5PMb-7t1B8d-aSRbK4-a1pVMw-aFABT4-iVg5NY-AJ8xr-7oqmYy">Philip Taylor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To illustrate, I want to take a closer look at three of the schools that received the congressional request for information because they have endowments of $1 billion or more. In the context of this discussion, there’s nothing particularly special about these three schools except that they demonstrate why expenses are relevant to endowment size.</p>
<p>Each year, the <a href="http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2015_NCSE_Endowment_Market_Values.pdf">National Association of College and University Business Officers</a> ranks endowments by their absolute value. In 2015, Harvard was at the top of the heap with an eye-popping $36.4 billion endowment. Vanderbilt University was in 23rd place, with $4.1 billion. Grinnell College was considerably farther back, coming in 50th with an endowment of almost $1.8 billion. </p>
<p>Now let’s add a fourth school to the mix: Colgate University. As before, in the context of this discussion there’s nothing special about Colgate except that it helps illustrate why endowments and expenses need to be considered simultaneously. </p>
<p>When measured only by absolute endowment value, Colgate is way behind Harvard, Vanderbilt and Grinnell. Colgate comes in 103rd place, with an $892 million endowment. And Colgate was spared the congressional letter because its endowment did not exceed the $1 billion threshold. </p>
<h2>Expenses matter</h2>
<p>Now consider these same schools, this time in light of both absolute endowment value and all expenses – the costs incurred to fulfill the school’s educational mission, to administer the institution and to fundraise. Unsurprisingly, these four schools have wildly different expenses. Harvard and Vanderbilt are large research universities, while Grinnell and Colgate are small liberal arts colleges.</p>
<p>In 2013 (the most recent year for which data is readily available), <a href="http://chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=12240_166027_2013_private">Harvard</a> had expenses of $4.4 billion; <a href="http://chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=16731_221999_2013_private">Vanderbilt</a>, $3.8 billion; <a href="http://chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=18177_153384_2010_private">Grinnell</a>, $97.6 million; and <a href="http://chronicle.com/interactives/executive-compensation#id=13889_190099_2013_private">Colgate</a>, $172.2 million. There’s been a lot of <a href="https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0005s.pdf">discussion</a> about whether colleges and universities are doing enough to control costs. But to measure the strength of an endowment, we can assume that current institutional expenses are representative of future institutional expenses.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112171/original/image-20160219-25888-4jd2co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An endowment helps fund scholarships and research budgets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kylebaker/4405613434/in/photolist-7HiVoj-q4tn8W-qiKGp3-q4tQUj-5j49bX-phyX2M-bEhzPg-bEhuVM-ptp75c-87ubF4-91TRTk-87uhRR-87uhWz-nCLx5Q-c3ryrL-Bys7hL-6y6WND-c3rAk7-nojwhq-eZH8uW-nojJzd-pDi5AR-fZumH6-h4nADg-h4o1YN-h4nLsq-h4nK55-h4oPnZ-h4nRqQ-h4nZLs-h4nZ3U-h4nLhf-h4nKNQ-h4oSQk-h4oNPp-h4nBME-fpsSMm-h4p1Xc-h4nPVr-h4nPVY-h4oKNp-pyM4nM-fPvJBd-4sZoMm-chk76u-rGeqsR-oy7sY6-h4oMHg-h4oZhi-h4oXKF">kylebaker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Grinnell’s endowment is so enormous that it can pay for a whopping 18 years of expenses, until today’s infants are ready to matriculate. Harvard’s endowment is large enough to cover eight years. And Colgate – which does not exceed the $1 billion threshold – can pay for five years.</p>
<p>But Vanderbilt, with its $4.1 billion endowment, cannot cover even two years’ worth of expenses. </p>
<p>Some <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=565241">academics</a> have argued that endowments are excessively large once the endowment can cover more than two years of expenses. <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Endowments-Can-Become-Too-Much/8280">Others</a> have suggested that an endowment is much bigger than a school needs when it can pay for more than five years of expenses.</p>
<p>At some point, an endowment may become vastly larger than what a college or university needs to ensure its success. No school really needs an endowment that is large enough to cover a half-decade or more of expenses. But to determine whether an endowment is so large that it warrants different treatment than others, Congress must consider the endowment in relation to institutional costs. It cannot simply use $1 billion as some kind of magical threshold.</p>
<h2>Modifying endowment tax policy</h2>
<p>Favorable tax policy is one of the reasons that endowments can accumulate $1 billion or that a school can have an endowment large enough to cover 18 years of expenses. The government collects fewer tax dollars than it otherwise would because donations to endowments qualify for the charitable deduction, and endowments do not have to pay taxes on their investment returns. </p>
<p>In my view, schools like Harvard and Grinnell are going to fight tooth and nail to hang on to this preferential tax treatment. But when a college or university has an endowment that is large enough to cover its expenses for years and years into the future, I believe lawmakers should conclude that the forgone tax dollars would be better spent elsewhere. At some point, an endowment has such ample funds that it no longer needs government subsidy. This means goodbye to tax-free investment returns and to the charitable deduction.</p>
<p>Eliminating the charitable deduction may mean that donors would give less, but they would not stop giving altogether. As I’ve described <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1124544">elsewhere</a>, research has shown that the charitable deduction is only one of the reasons that donors give to colleges and universities. Some donors feel a responsibility to “give back” to their alma matter. Others desire the social status and public recognition that giving can provide, or want to influence institutional policy. <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/261662">Some people give</a> simply because it makes them feel good. For many donors, a combination of all these factors motivates them to give. </p>
<p>But even if eliminating the charitable deduction means that some donors would choose to direct their giving elsewhere, chances are that the recipient organization would need the donation more than a school with a very large endowment. </p>
<p>Although schools are unlikely to see it this way, less preferential tax treatment would actually be a sign of success: it means that donors have been so generous and the endowment has been so well-managed that the school now requires less public assistance than others do. </p>
<p>So, legislators should stop fixating on the $1 billion mark and instead evaluate endowments in their larger institutional context. </p>
<p>Before Congress singles out certain endowments for less preferential tax treatment, it needs to distinguish between endowments that sound obscenely large and those that actually are.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Waldeck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A bill before Congress is proposing colleges and universities with endowments of at least $1 billion spend 25 percent of the money on financial aid. What is the proposal missing?Sarah Waldeck, Professor of Law, Seton Hall UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/498182015-11-03T04:05:45Z2015-11-03T04:05:45ZFinancial stress distracts university students from academic success<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100135/original/image-20151029-15334-1lduolx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's difficult for students who are struggling financially to focus on their academic work.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The #feesmustfall student movement in South Africa has garnered a great deal of popular support. It has its <a href="http://www.news24.com/Opinions/Student-radicals-or-hooligans-20151016">critics</a>, too. They have suggested that the country’s government and its universities simply <a href="http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/10/29/prepare-yourself-for-the-decline-of-our-universities">can’t afford</a> the free tertiary education students are demanding as their right. </p>
<p>These critics and those who have proliferated on social media miss an important point. Students are not just looking for a free ride. For many, stress about money is a distressing and unwelcome distraction from their degrees – qualifications they hope can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.</p>
<h2>Financial stress is a reality</h2>
<p>I recently concluded <a href="http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/jspui/bitstream/11189/3160/1/Pather_S_DEd_2015.pdf">research</a> about the factors that influence first-year students’ experiences and academic performance. </p>
<p>The vast majority – 94% – of the students involved needed external funding like student loans, bursaries and scholarships to support their university life. Some had even enrolled for degrees without having funding confirmed – so their days were consumed by worries about finance. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I left my job to study full time it was not easy, my money saved paid for my registration fees and res [residence], yeah, but that was, like, it. I couldn’t pay for food, clothes, books, transport or anything and then I applied for [a bursary scheme] and [it] didn’t take me. So right now I’m not paying, literally. I am just staying at res. So I’m not paying there and I’m not paying my fees because I thought if I get the bursary, it’s gonna come through but it didn’t come through. I have to think of a way to pay for my studies!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of these students cannot rely on their families for financial support. Parents’ jobs influence the amount of financial support that they can offer their children. In the study sample, only 24.45% of fathers and 22.2% of mothers had professional occupations and could offer their children some help with money.</p>
<p>Students keenly felt this lack of support, with one saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I had the financial support from my family I would have done much better in maybe some of the work [academic work]; it’s no excuse, I could do better if I had this support.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In total 41% of the participants received some form of financial support from their parents, 53% relied on external funding – 10% received student loans and 43% obtained student bursaries – and 6% paid for their own studies. </p>
<p>Across the board, the students’ main priority was to desperately secure financial aid before focusing on academic activities. Only once they were able to deal with this stumbling block did they shift focus to their studies. </p>
<h2>Promoting social integration</h2>
<p>Being at university is not solely about studying. Socialising is an important component, giving students the chance to meet new and different people. </p>
<p>However, many of the students I interviewed had picked up part-time jobs to try and keep the wolf from the door. This kept them off campus at times when other students were socialising or getting involved in university activities beyond the classroom. That, in turn, made these financially struggling students feel less like they belonged at university. </p>
<p>The study reveals that social disintegration with both academics and peers deprives students of a holistic university experience.</p>
<p>Universities need to proactively provide the space and opportunities to encourage social connection on campus. Social networking on campus would certainly help disadvantaged students who have limited social and cultural capital. <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-60462011000200004">Research shows</a> that developing these students’ social connections can be an important factor in them becoming successful university students.</p>
<h2>Universities have a role to play</h2>
<p>Universities have an obligation to ensure that their students get the most out of the degree experience. This helps them to produce well-rounded graduates. How, then, should institutions rise to the challenge of helping students who are forced into employment as a priority ahead of their academic studies?</p>
<p>One suggestion is for universities to play a more active and aggressive role in ensuring that students don’t have to wait for money. Some existing funding schemes only pay out after the academic year commences. Others only confirm student funding once term has started. Many students are not even able to get past the hurdle of paying upfront registration fees. </p>
<p>So, policies and programmes are needed to make financial aid available from the very first day of study or even a few weeks before a course starts. In addition student fees should be determined by individual applicants’ economic and social circumstances.</p>
<p>Addressing students’ funding challenges as early as possible would mitigate the burden and stress of students trying to secure financial aid while also trying to cope with their academic and other commitments. These include finding a part time job and addressing personal issues such as accommodation, food and living expenses.</p>
<h2>Towards great graduates</h2>
<p>The best universities want to produce the sort of graduates who can do great things for their country and community. To do this, institutions must realise that financial stress is a terrible burden – one which distracts potentially excellent graduates from their academic goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Subethra Pather received funding from National Research Council and a PhD DHET scholarship from CCRRI - Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity - UKZN. </span></em></p>For many students, stress about money is a terrible and unwelcome distraction from their degrees – qualifications they hope can lift themselves and their families out of poverty.Subethra Pather, Academic Development Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/478792015-09-29T04:44:06Z2015-09-29T04:44:06ZHow to stop high drop out rate of first-year university students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96417/original/image-20150928-415-lqloxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Up to 40% of South African university students drop out after their first year. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The opening up of South Africa’s universities after the end of apartheid has proved to be a double-edged sword. Enrolment figures have <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Teacher%20Education/Technical%20Report%20-%20Intergrated%20Strategic%20Planning%20Framework%20for%20Teacher%20Education%20and%20Development%20In%20SA,%2012%20Apr%202011.pdf">doubled</a> from close to 500,000 in 1993 to 938,201 in 2011, which means that far more people have had the chance to earn a university degree.</p>
<p>But universities have been largely unprepared for this astonishing growth. This has contributed to a high drop-out rate. First-year students have borne the brunt of this, with <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">more than 40%</a> of them dropping out in their first year of study.</p>
<p>The best way to create programmes and policies designed to support these students is to understand them: who they are; where they come from; and what the structural stumbling blocks are to their success. </p>
<p>I conducted a <a href="http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/jspui/bitstream/11189/3160/1/Pather_S_DEd_2015.pdf">case study</a> of first-year teacher education students at the <a href="http://www.cput.ac.za/">Cape Peninsula University of Technology</a>, using both a survey and personal interviews to gather data. The purpose was to investigate what factors outside the academy were affecting their fledgling university careers.</p>
<h2>Family responsibilities</h2>
<p>The approximately 200 students involved in the study are older than the average first-time university entrant. They have a mean age of 21 and 84% are the first in their families to attend university.</p>
<p>Many of the mature students did not enter university out of choice, but more out of desperation to change their circumstances – as this student explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I decided I want to study; I’m gonna quit work because it’s not the life I want for me and I just said to myself, ‘No! you need to change your life, you need to go back to study.’ I wanted to do something better for me and my son to have a better life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They feel an urgency to succeed and view a university degree as being key to their financial stability. This attitude is part of the reason many chose a teaching degree. Teaching is perceived as a job that offers security to both the students and their extended families. </p>
<p>One student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to prove to myself that I can do this, even with all of the challenges that I have, but it’s just that the need to succeed goes into supporting my family and putting them onto the map as well. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Money troubles</h2>
<p>Almost 94% of the students surveyed rely on bursaries or scholarships to study. Many have taken part-time jobs to have some income and don’t spend a lot of time on campus. There is simply no time to spend at a cafeteria chatting with fellow students or to socialise between lectures. They also miss out on the benefits of being full-time students, like visiting the library. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m working every weekend now to pay, like, for my food. I work on a wine farm in Stellenbosch. So every Friday I take the taxi home and I work the weekend and then my dad brings me back Sunday night because the hours are long and there is no taxi so late into the city. I take my university work with me and then when it’s quiet and when there is [sic] no customers I would take my bag and quickly do some work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike their younger, less financially constrained peers, these students tend to make friends only with those they think might advance their own academic success:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am here to study, not worry about other people’s marks. You need to put yourself with people who know they are doing something positive; people that can help you achieve your goal. You are not here to make friends, friends are a bonus; focus on your marks, you are here for something, focus on that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Their family commitments are another reason these students say they can’t socialise or spend a lot of time on campus. They are trying to balance their academic work, family life and part-time jobs. Something has to give, and in this case it’s the amount of time they spend physically at university.</p>
<h2>Feeling of belonging</h2>
<p>These students’ circumstances mean that they don’t feel as though they “belong” to the university. If universities listened to their first-year students’ stories more closely they could design programmes and policies that consider these students’ needs. Once a student “belongs”, feels valued and receives the support they need, they are more likely to stick it out and complete a degree.</p>
<p>Universities should consider extended first-year orientation programmes that enhance both the social and academic life of a student. These should encourage peer-to-peer interaction and support as well as positive engagement between students and staff. The formal curriculum should be blended in parts with co-curricular activities to encourage more meaningful social and academic integration between students and academics.</p>
<p>Finally, universities should stop viewing first-year students as a drop-out risk. These youngsters are often determined, optimistic, enthusiastic and open to learning – qualities that will ultimately benefit themselves and their academic institutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47879/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Subethra Pather received funding from National Research Foundation and Department of Higher Education. </span></em></p>There are a number of factors outside the academy that hold first-year university students back. Addressing these can improve retention rates.Subethra Pather, Academic Development Lecturer, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.