A federal loan. Work-study. An engineering grant. A university grant.
With all of that financial aid — about $20,000 worth a year —Andrew DiOrio is able to complete his sophomore year at Syracuse University.
“Without financial aid I wouldn’t be able to attend the kind of quality college that I would have wanted to attend,” DiOrio said..
At Syracuse University, DiOrio one of about 7,600 students — 66 percent of undergraduates — who receives some university financial aid to be able to attend SU, according the university’s Web site. Approximately 78 percent of SU undergraduates receive financial support from federal, state, institutional or private sources.
Nationwide, about 75 percent of college students in the 2006-07 received some sort of financial aid, according to collegboard.com, an online organization that provides college guidance to students. Those students received $97.1 billion in different kinds of financial aid.
At Syracuse University, tuition, including room and board, for the 2007-08 school year was $45,280. Next year Syracuse is raising the cost of tuition by 5 percent or $2,500. That increase will take the cost from $45,280 to $47,820. That puts an extra burden on students — and makes financial aid even more important to them.
The university is expanding its endowment, said Gwenn Judge, the director of budget and planning. The endowment comes from fundraising and generates income to help pay for expenses beyond normal operating costs — such as some financial aid. But, Judge said, SU is still “heavily tuition dependent.”
“Tuition is still the primary source of money for the university,” Judge said.
Costs at the university must increase to pay for rising costs such as faculty salaries and healthcare, Judge said. Also, to attract students, the university must spend money on recreation services, technology and building renovations. Finally, the university is trying to offer students more financial aid.
“We have to increase financial aid to ensure we offer access to anyone who can’t afford the sticker price,” Judge said. “In the end, the reason tuition has to go up is to support everything.”
A lot of that increase falls on students, said Kaye DeVesty, the assistant dean of financial aid at Syracuse University.
“Right now I think people understand that costs are going to increase and the burden is really on the families to pay those additional costs,” DeVesty said.
Now, Syracuse University relies on a number of state and federal financial aid programs to help students cover the steep tuition costs, DeVesty said. Some of the federal programs include Pell Grants, Stafford and Perkins loans and work-study.
Pell Grants are the main source of financial aid for students nationally. They are need-based grants that are usually given to undergraduate students and do not have to be repaid. Next year, the maximum Pell Grant will be $4,800, up from $4,310. Every year the maximum amount that can be awarded is based upon program funding.
Stafford and Perkins loans are given to students by the federal government. They can be unsubsidized, meaning that the government pays the interest and the loans do not have to be repaid until the student graduates.
In work-study programs, the federal government pays for students to have part-time jobs on campus so that they can earn money throughout the year.
But in his latest education budget proposal, President George W. Bush called for eliminating some financial programs such as work-study and well as the Perkins Loan Program. To offset the loss of work-study financial aid, Bush called for increasing the maximum Pell Grant award for the 2008-09 school year by an additional $69 to the $490 that the government had already planned to increase it by for the 2008-09 school year.
But the proposed Pell Grant additional increase of $69 does not match general inflation levels.
Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of government and public affairs for the American Council on Education and an SU alumnus, lobbies the federal government on the behalf of college and universities and their students. Bush’s proposal is not popular, he said.
“There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for the president’s education budget across the board—elementary, secondary and higher education. The problem is that the budget will be extremely tight this year,” Hartle said.
His organization, he said, “will focus on this year is trying to get more money for Pell Grants and make sure the supplemental grants and work-study remain to help students.”
Hartle predicts that President Bush’s education budget proposal will not pass in Congress.
Beth Rougeux, the executive director of community and government relations at Syracuse University, calls for the federal government to continue to help finance higher education programs and schools such as Syracuse University.
“We hope that federal and state government realize that education is so important to our citizenry” Rougeux said. “The way the economy is and the interest rates, you know, it’s just so hard.
For his part, engineering sophomore DiOrio expresses gratitude for the financial aid that allows him to Syracuse University. He is in the L.C. Smith School of Engineering School’s chemical engineering program. Approximately half of DiOrio’s tuition is covered by the numerous financial aid, grant and scholarship packages he was awarded.
He is one of five children in the DiOrio family. Three of them are now in undergraduate or graduate schools. His older brother will graduate in May. But that’s not a financial relief for the family. His younger sister plans to start college in the fall.
The rising cost of college has put financial strain on the DiOrio family, leading them looking for financial aid resources to help pay for tuition costs. “When I got my acceptance letters I was looking at financial aid,” DiOrio said. “That’s what got me to come to Syracuse, was the financial aid.”
(Bryan Young is a sophomore newspaper and political science major.)
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