Chancellor's plan is similar to underused state aid program

By Sharon Jayson
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, January 15, 2003

University of Texas System Chancellor Mark Yudof's promise of free tuition and fees for lower- and middle-income students in Texas closely resembles a state grant program that offers more money than students are currently taking from it.

In addition, one month after Yudof unveiled his plan, university officials still don't know how much it would cost or how many students might qualify.

Yudof announced his grant proposal -- initially called the Texas Guarantee -- on Dec. 13. Under the proposal, students from families earning at or below the median Texas income of about $41,000 would get their tuition and fees paid at any of UT's nine academic campuses. At the unveiling, Yudof promised that university officials would "make sure we can take care of at least half of all Texas families."

But slightly more than one-quarter of UT-Austin's undergraduates already get tuition and fees paid through a variety of grants and scholarships. According to UT System data, the numbers range from 23 percent at UT-Dallas to 58 percent at UT-San Antonio. The percentages represent "free aid" such as federal, state, local and private grants.

Yudof said he is optimistic that his plan would have widespread impact despite his contention that "we may never get a totally satisfactory estimate" of the number of students who might qualify.

"We have every reason to think that when you look at the averages that there are significant numbers of students who are not getting full tuition and fees," he said.

Marcus Wilson, president of the Texas Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said Yudof's proposal could help some "folks on the fringe" -- those who don't qualify for programs such as the federal Pell Grant, which pays up to $4,000 each year, or the TEXAS Grant Program, which pays up to $2,950 each year and requires recipients to maintain "satisfactory academic progress" -- a standard each university sets for itself -- to keep the money each year.

Passed by the Legislature in 1999, the TEXAS Grant Program has more money available than what students are seeking, prompting additional questions about how Yudof plans to better attract applicants. Last year, the state allocated $120 million, but only $103 million in grants was awarded statewide. The unspent money was reallocated for grants this year.

Students who demonstrate need and complete either of two special high school curricula, one that the state defines as more well-rounded and the other as more advanced than the standard curriculum, qualify for a TEXAS grant.

State financial aid officials say the program is underused because too few students are taking the special curricula. They hope the program will get a boost in 2008, when the first class required to take the more well-rounded curriculum graduates.

UT-Austin pays $2,390 for each needy student -- the difference between its $5,340 annual tuition and the $2,950 annual grant, and has always spent its full grant allocation, said Larry Burt, director of Student Financial Services.

Wilson notes that Yudof has said he's floating his plan in exchange for legislators' willingness to hand over their tuition-setting authority to university officials. Lawmakers have resisted that change for years, fearing it could price students out of college.

"We need to ask questions like, 'Is what he's trying to accomplish is to get the deregulation and use this to ease legislators' minds?' "Wilson said.

The UT-Austin Student Government was more pointed in a resolution it introduced Tuesday opposing tuition deregulation.

The resolution reads, in part, "If Chancellor Yudof fails to provide an explanation for the new proposal, the student body of the University of Texas at Austin would disregard the proposal as nothing more than a politically strategic repackaging of existing scholarships and grant programs intended to sway the Texas Legislature into deregulating tuition."

The resolution may be voted on next week.

Yudof said he is still lining up legislative sponsors and hopes to present lawmakers with one bill that will include both the grant proposal and tuition deregulation. Earlier this week, Yudof said the chancellors of the state's six largest university systems have his proposal "under review."

Jane Caldwell, who oversees grant programs for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, said some families daunted by the complexity of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the form all students seeking financial aid must complete, might be persuaded to complete it because of the free tuition pledge.

"As an incentive and a promise and a source of high expectations, I think it's very positive," she said.

Yudof acknowledged that, so far, what he has unveiled is a broad outline designed to alleviate fears about tuition deregulation.

"I wanted to get the idea out there, this quid pro quo that if you will allow the regents to exercise what I would call local control, we could have some sort of a guarantee that it would not adversely affect middle-income and lower-income families," he said. "I knew we were getting out a broad proposal where you try to get people to buy in conceptually and then you really have a whole series of issues to work through."

Among those issues is the specific income cutoff and whether students will have to maintain a particular grade-point average to keep the grant money each year. His initial proposal did not specify an academic requirement, but Yudof says he is likely to include one so his proposal won't contradict the TEXAS Grant Program.

One issue has been resolved. Days after Yudof announced his proposal, Milton G. Wright, president and chief executive officer of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp., wrote to Yudof to point out that his organization had the Texas Guaranteee name first and has applied for trademark status.

The working name for Yudof's proposal is now the Texas Compact.

sjayson@statesman.com; 445-3620

Financial Aid

Tuition and fee amounts vary by instituion. The percentage of undergraduates at each of the UT System's nine academic campuses getting tuition and fees fully paid through 'free aid,' such as grants and scholarships:

UT-San Antonio 58%
UT-Pan American 54%
UT-El Paso 47%
UT-Permian Basin 37%
UT-Brownsville 35%
UT-Tyler 32%
UT-Austin 28%
UT-Arlington 25%
UT-Dallas 23%
Source: University of Texas System