Stepping into his presidency at Michigan-based Hope College in 2019, Matthew A. Scogin acknowledged that higher education had “never been more important.” Yet, it also had “never been more cost prohibitive.”
As of 2021, student loan debt has amounted to $1.7 trillion in the United States, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System reported.
Scogin’s efforts became focused on solving the affordability challenge. Years later, the solution was announced, with a new financial strategy called “Hope Forward.”
Using the three pillars of accessibility, generosity and community, Hope Forward is modeled as a pay-it-forward design. Rather than pay tuition up front, students are instead asked to provide gifts of any amount each year to the college after graduation. Only payments of room and board are required while completing classes.
“It’s really about thinking of ourselves as a learning community and moving away from what too often feels like a transactional relationship with students,” Scogin’s said. “Our view is that students could be students, not customers. And to the extent institutes of higher learning think of students as customers, we actually think that’s toxic to a robust learning environment.”
With a goal of assessing the impact and logistics, a pilot program with 22 students is set to be launched this fall. To be eligible, students had to reside outside of the Midwest, hold a minimum 3.0 GPA and write an essay about an area of “hopelessness” they would like to address. Zoom interviews were then held to narrow down candidates.
“One thing that we are seeing in students is that they may come into college with big dreams about changing the world,” said Scogin. “But as they graduate, they’re so burdened by debt that often students will give up on their dreams in order to take a job that will pay the bills.”
