The Emerald ran an article on PathwayOregon [see below] today, along with an editorial that says the program “will work effectively, albeit incrementally, toward reversing the University’s sub par levels of access to low-income and minority students.” The University estimates 400 incoming freshman will qualify for free tuition.

The average Pell Grant given nationwide is roughly $2,400. The University website says in-state tuition plus fees is $5,613, minus $2,400 equals $3,213 per student on average, multiplied by 400 students, equals $1,285,200 in grants and scholarships that PathwayOregon will give next fall, not counting the room and board promised to the top 25 eligible students. However, this may not be accurate. I don’t know if PathwayOregon covers the mandatory fees separate from tuition, which leads into another ODE front page story. 

The State Board of Higher Ed decided to add resource fees, which have been labeled hidden fees by many, to the overall tuition by 2011. Oregon lawmakers and the Oregon Student Association have campaigned for this over the past year, and were featured in the New York Times last summer. This new system won’t save anyone money, it just rolls everything into one chunk payment in order to “create more transparency for students.”

If the makers of PathwayOregon did not plan to include the hidden fees for eligible students, it seems that they will soon be forced to after all. In both cases, I’m not sure how the incidental fee is worked in. Do students who qualify for PathwayOregon have their i-fee paid for each term? In 2011, will the i-fee be considered part of tuition? If so, does that conflict with the Administration’s freedom of responsibility from groups and content funded by the i-fee (if you don’t know about this, type ‘Insurgent’ and ‘aroused jesus’ in the search)?

There are many programs nationwide similar to PathwayOregon, but it is the first of its kind in the state. The Pell Grant is a key variable in these programs. There are U.S. legislators and officials who would like to decrease the average and maximum payouts of Pell Grants. If a movement succeeds to keep the Pell Grant in check, colleges and universities with programs like PathwayOregon may end up scrambling for funds.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 7th, 2008 at 20:02 by Ossie and is filed under Campus, Education, Ol' Dirty Emerald. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.