While many land-grant flagships strive to keep costs low for students, they have not been as successful in yielding high graduation rates, and, as a result, many students—including high numbers of Blacks and Latinos—fall through the cracks.
Dr. José Cruz, the vice president for higher education, policy and practice at the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that pushes high academic achievement and seeks to narrow opportunity and achievement gaps—especially among minority students from pre-kindergarten to college—says that most of the nation’s land-grant institutions have neglected their mission to educate diverse populations in favor of recruiting high-achieving students from relatively wealthy families who can help the schools climb in national rankings.
“The main challenge is associated with how flagships make decisions about how to invest their financial aid dollars,” says Cruz. He points out that, from 2003 to 2007, public research universities increased the amount of aid to students whose parents make at least $115,000 a year by 28 percent. He adds that these schools routinely award as much in financial aid to students whose parents make more than $80,000 a year as to those whose parents make less than $54,000 a year.
“We are using the data to drive policy discussions at all levels,” says Cruz, who organized a briefing on Capitol Hill in July to talk with congressional leaders about the importance of safeguarding the Pell Grant and other federally supported financial aid programs. The Pell Grant program faces serious threats in budget negotiations for fiscal year 2012. The U.S. Senate recently rejected a move by the House of Representatives to slash support for the program, yet it remains unclear how the program ultimately will fare once the Senate drafts its budget.
Dr. F. King Alexander, president of California State University, Long Beach, was at the congressional briefing. This school and California State University, Fullerton, were two of the five institutions applauded in an Education Trust report released in June titled “Priced Out: How the Wrong Financial-Aid Policies Hurt Low-Income Students.” They were recognized for being the most affordable and accessible institutions with high graduation rates. The other three schools are the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, City University of New York Queens College and City University of New York Baruch College.
At CSULB, Alexander says that the challenge to remain accessible and to graduate students within the traditional six years has proved somewhat difficult for many public institutions, particularly when state legislatures have authorized drastic cutbacks to higher education.
“We are spending 50 percent less today than we were in 1980,” says Alexander, whose student population at CSULB is approximately 35,000 students, making it the 25th largest university in the United States. “If the federal government does not stop states from abandoning their commitments to education, no institutions will qualify based on the Education Trust’s guidelines. It’s shocking that five made it.” CSULB officials have created a bold initiative called Project Green Light. Two full-time academic advisors track down students who drop out of CSULB during their junior and senior years and provide them with a pathway to re-enroll and graduate in a timely fashion.
