A Bold Look at National Trends
Alicia is a rising junior at Benedict College, who upon realizing that her parents could no longer afford her tuition, had just began giving up hope and looking at other options for her future. Imagine the sheer delight on Alicia’s face as she receives a letter containing her financial aid package for the academic year, and discovers her tuition has been discounted by $6,000.
This burst of satisfaction, excitement, and relief affecting Alicia and other students like her, results from Benedict College administration’s bold decision to lower tuition by $6,000 for returning students and create a substantially more affordable option for new incoming students. Since its inception in 1870 by founder Mrs. Bathsheba Benedict, Benedict College has evidenced sincere devotion to her goal to educate and produce citizens like Alicia who would be “powers for good in society.” Nearly 150 years later, with such a bold approach in the face of several sociopolitical challenges, leadership at Benedict continues to demonstrate a renewed commitment to providing access for students to become powers for good in society, as defined by Founder Benedict.
Eligibility to receive a federal Pell grant has historically served as an indicator of a student’s financial need. According to IPEDS data, the range of Pell grant recipients among historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the 2011–2012 academic year was 100 percent at Concordia College Alabama and 41 percent at Hampton University. The collective average of Pell grant recipients across all HBCUs was 77 percent — indicating that the majority of students at most HBCUs are considered members of high-need populations. Ninety percent of Benedict College students are Pell eligible, which suggests that the majority of Benedict students are also considered of low socioeconomic status, above and beyond the average for Pell-eligible students at all HBCUs.
As HBCUs commonly serve large populations of socioeconomically challenged students who are dependent upon affordable pricing and the availability of financial aid from initial enrollment and retention through to graduation — what is preventing HBCUs from also making the decision to lower tuition? With student gaps of between $6,000 and $8,000, and access to the ability to provide a discount of around 32 percent, rather than asking what prompted our decision to do so, the better question is why would we not lower tuition – and when will HBCUs across the country follow suit?
Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, president and CEO of Benedict College, recently analyzed the cost of tuition at colleges and universities across the country. She found the cost of tuition to be skyrocketing at an alarming rate and tuition discount rates rising at an all-time high. Her examination of the failure to meet enrollment targets at America’s colleges and universities also revealed concerning results. When looking at IPEDS data, more than two-thirds of private colleges failed to meet their enrollment or net tuition revenue targets for 2016. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in a 2017 article titled “The Future of College Enrollment” that U.S. colleges are expected to see a steady decline in their enrollment, posing yet another threat to their continued existence and access for many of their students. From 2012 to 2016, 68 percent of HBCUs experienced a decline in enrollment. During this same time period, Benedict College experienced a 21.8 percent decrease in enrollment. Taking together each of these factors, when asked why we lowered our cost of attendance, again, the better question should be, “Why not?”
A Bold Look at Our Tuition-Discounting Model
