Kilmer

A group of students, including a delegation from Seattle Pacific University, gathered in Olympia for higher education advocacy day last Friday. They heard a passionate speech from State Sen. Derek Kilmer, chair of the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, in support of the State Need Grant, State Work Study, and other financial aid programs.

Kilmer correctly noted that financial aid is the key to keeping college affordable for many students of modest means. He urged the students to push their legislators to commit to funding for the Need Grant, Work Study, and other financial aid programs in the new state budget.

You can watch Kilmer’s entire speech below.

You can still be an effective advocate even if you can’t visit Olympia. Use Independent Colleges of Washington’s Legislative Action Center to send messages to the governor and your legislators, asking for their support of student aid programs.

The University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN), a consumer information Web site for students considering private, nonprofit colleges and universities, has unveiled newly updated data for hundreds of institutions.  The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) developed and maintains U-CAN.

The updated Web site includes the most recent information available in areas important to prospective students and their families, including admissions, enrollment, cost of attendance, student aid, faculty, and more.

This is the third update to U-CAN since the Web site launched in September 2007.  In addition to the new data, U-CAN offers 147 searchable fields and 25 “clickable” buttons that link to additional information found on individual campus Web sites.

“Many families are overwhelmed by the college search process, and don’t believe they are getting the information and guidance necessary to make an informed choice,” said NAICU President David L. Warren. “U-CAN helps prospective students and their families make sense of the facts they need to find the best college fit.”

Since 2007, the number of private colleges and universities signed up to participate has grown from 600 to 808 institutions, including all 10 members of Independent Colleges of Washington. The site has had over one million visitors, and reached 2 million page views this week.

NAICU serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education. With more than 1,000 member institutions and associations nationwide, NAICU reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the United States. NAICU members enroll 85 percent of all students attending private institutions. They include traditional liberal arts colleges, major research universities, church- and faith-related institutions, historically black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, single-sex colleges, art institutions, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions.

Gov. Gregoire

Governor Chris Gregoire today made public her proposal to deal with a $2.6 billion budget shortfall. The no-new-revenue, all-cuts proposal bridged the gap in part by cutting about $187 million from state financial aid programs. The largest chunk of that, $146 million, comes out of the State Need Grant Program.

The governor made plain that she knows we won’t like this proposal, and said she doesn’t support it either. But by law she must provide a balanced budget within existing revenue. She referred to the budget she revealed today as “balanced but unjust.” She pledged to propose another budget in January that includes new revenue (closed tax loopholes, tax and fee increases, possible federal dollars) and to restore some of these cuts, including in financial aid.

Need Grant details
The governor made reductions to the Need Grant program in two ways. First, she reduced the eligibility level from the current 70 percent of the state’s median family income ($55,000 for a family of four) down to 50 percent of MFI ($39,000). This would throw an estimated 12,300 currently eligible students out of the program. Those remaining, the lowest income students, would have their grants cut by about half, to about $3,400. These cuts would be effective for next fiscal (and academic) year, not the current one. The reductions amount to a 60 percent cut in the program.

Other aid programs “suspended or eliminated”
The governor’s budget provides no funding in the 2010-11 fiscal year for State Work Study, WAVE, GEAR-UP, Washington Scholars, the GET Ready for Math and Science Scholarship, Health Care Professionals Scholarship and Loan Forgiveness Program, the Passport to College scholarship program for former foster youth, and child care matching grants. This saves about $41 million.

We agree with the governor that huge cuts to student financial aid are not acceptable. We applaud her pledge to restore cuts and “get financial aid to our low-income college students” and keep the doors to higher education open for all capable students, regardless of income.  We will work with the governor and legislators to restore funding for financial aid programs. Higher education is a key to economic opportunity for Washington students and to economic recovery for the state.

Need-based financial aid is a key investment when resources are tight, as it targets those resources to a specific need and delivers results. Aid recipients match their more well-off classmates in graduation rates, post-graduation employment rates and income, graduate school attendance, job satisfaction, and living independently from their parents. Need-based aid creates opportunity. Focusing funding on students in the form of need-based aid empowers students to choose the college—public or private—that is right for them and their career aspirations and dreams.

You can read the governor’s news release about her budget proposal, and this page has links to a host of documents about the budget for the seriously wonky among our readership. View the governor’s pledge on financial aid below, or visit the TVW Web site to  watch this morning’s news conference in its entirety.

The State of Washington faces a shortfall of an estimated $2.6 billion in in its biennial budget that runs through next June. Governor Chris Gregoire will let us know tomorrow what she intends to do about it. There’s rampant speculation that higher education will again be a target for cuts, as a major pot of “discretionary” spending that isn’t constitutionally protected.

Three of the state’s higher education leaders have joined hands—or pens at least—to say that further cuts to higher education would be a big mistake. Ron Thomas, president of University of Puget Sound and chair of the board for Independent Colleges of Washington; Rodolfo Arévalo, president of Eastern Washington University and chair of the Council of Presidents; and Charlie Earl, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, share authorship of an op-ed column published in today’s Seattle Times urging support for college students and higher education.

Given the demonstrable benefits of higher education both to individuals and society, it’s almost inconceivable that the state’s students and colleges often end up taking the brunt of budget cuts rather than being a top priority for state support.

ICW is particularly concerned about cuts to or even possible elimination of the State Need Grant program, which helps more than 70,000 students of modest means attend the college, public or private, that best meets their academic goals and needs. It’s critical in creating educational opportunities to those students. Protecting financial aid for students is our top legislative priority.

Sign up as an ICW Advocate today at our Legislative Action Center to get important alerts and learn how to help us protect state aid for students who need help paying for college.

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A new report from The Project on Student Debt has some mixed news. While 2008 college grads left school with somewhat more debt than those in previous years, debt for students in the Western U.S. was generally less than that for students in the East.

ICW board member Laura Rehrmann, left, and Alicia Cottrell, a University of Puget Sound student and recipient of the ICW Board Scholarship, talk during a break in ICW's board meeting in October.

Washington state falls a bit below the middle. The average debt for graduates here was $18,987, ranking 35th highest in the country. Fifty-eight percent of students graduated with debt; that’s 27th highest in the country.

The average debt for students at Independent Colleges of Washington member institutions was a bit higher than the state average, just over $22,000. That’s a pretty small difference considering that average tuition is 4-to-5 times higher than it is at public colleges. Ninety percent of students receive some financial aid, including institutional aid which averages nearly $12,000. Coupled with state and federal grants, work study, and other scholarships, financial aid helps bring a high-quality, academically rigorous independent higher education within reach of all students, regardless of family income. You can learn more about the quality and affordability of private colleges in our annual fact book.

You can check out state-by-state data on the report, or download a PDF of the whole thing, from the Project on Student Debt Web site. There’s quite a bit of media coverage of the report, too, including the New York Times blog from yesterday and today, and CBS Moneywatch.

Prof. Bob Withycombe. Whitman College photo.

Bob Withycombe, a 29-year veteran Whitman College teacher and former debate coach, is the 2009 Washington Professor of the Year, award organizers announced today.

The U.S. Professors of the Year program, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), salutes extraordinary dedication to teaching as illustrated by involvement with students, scholarly approach to teaching and learning, contribution to education at the institution, and support from colleagues and current and former students. Only 38 such teachers were selected from across the country this year.

Withycombe is in Washington, D.C. today to receive his award and participate in an evening congressional reception sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest academic honor society.

The Whitman news site has a full story about Withycombe and his work at the college.

Faculty members from Independent Colleges of Washington member institutions have won the last three Washington Professor of the Year Awards, and five of the last eight. We think that’s a result of the colleges’ emphasis on teaching. ICW member institutions share a commitment to high-quality, academically rigorous learning and to an education that emphasizes critical thinking, lifelong learning, ethics, leadership, and community service.

Congratulations to Withycombe, and thanks to all of the great professors who give great value to independent higher education.

Quarless and his poster

Whitworth University recently posted this news item about senior Danjuma Quarless, who received a prestigious award from the University of Massachusetts for his scientific research and has been invited to present his findings at the annual conference of the American Society of Cell Biology. Quarless did some pretty brainy work on deflagellation-induced gene expression in Chlamydomonas. (Chlamydomonas is a type of green alga and unicellular flagellates. Flagellate are cells with one or more whip-like organelles called flagella, found in some animals. It says so in the Whitworth story!)

Near the end of the story, it’s noted that Quarless is part of Act Six, a leadership and scholarship program at Whitworth and several other Independent Colleges of Washington member institutions. Quarless received the ICW Board of Directors Scholarship this year. By coincidence, we interviewed him for the video below before we knew about his scientific awards.

Quarless provides proof of the power of financial aid. Already an award-winning scientist, Quarless plans to pursue a medical career. Without the help of financial aid and scholarships, he may never have been able to attend college at all. Scholarships help unlock the potential in many a capable student. That’s why we’re always encouraging everyone to Invest in Washington… One student at a time.

Dr. John Bassett

The Heritage University board of directors has appointed Dr. John Bassett as the second president of Heritage University. Bassett currently serves as the president of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, a position he has held since 2000. He will begin his new duties at Heritage next summer.

Bassett will succeed Dr. Kathleen Ross, who has been president at Heritage since its founding in 1982. Ross announced her plans to retire from the presidency in March of this year.

In addition to his duties as president at Clark, Bassett has a high profile leadership position on national education policy, serving as the vice-chair of the board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. NAICU is the unified national voice of independent higher education.

“I can think of no greater calling than to lead Heritage University,” said Bassett. “Higher education is the foundation for our future success as a society. Heritage was founded on the belief that no one should be denied access for reasons of poverty, culture or geography. My wife Kay and I are thrilled by the opportunity to live in the Pacific Northwest and build on the work of Dr. Ross.”

For more information, read the Heritage University news release on the announcement, Bassett’s letter to the Clark University community, and coverage from the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Halloween weekend wraps up Independent Colleges of Washington Service Month. I think the timing was just a coincidence, but a story out of Walla Walla University the other day made us chuckle.

Myers

WWU freshman Lucas Myers (at right) received an award from the Sacramento area Red Cross for donating 10 gallons of blood. Not all at once! That’s a lifetime total, and thought to be a record for a kid of 17. Three other students from the college also were honored by Red Cross for a miraculous bit of life saving.

Lt. Governor Brad Owen was in Spokane this week to present Gonzaga University with a $5,000 grant from Washington State Mentors. Owen is a co-chair of the organization, which is funded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and others. The grant recognizes and supports Gonzaga’s outstanding mentoring program.

University of Puget Sound athletes have their annual Trick-or-Can food drive this weekend. Seattle University students have their quarterly Labor of Love service day, which connects new students with the community through meaningful service projects, focused on the environment in recent years. Saint Martin’s University students will help the sisters of St. Placid Priory clean up ivy and with other projects on their grounds.

Students at ICW member colleges give more than a half million hours of volunteer service in their communities every year. Thanks for all you do to help Washington!

It’s the next-to-last weekend of Independent Colleges of Washington Service Month, as proclaimed by Gov. Gregoire. There’s a good line-up of projects on tap at member colleges this weekend. Among them:

Saint Martin’s University students will be at St. Benedict Episcopal Church in Lacey to help with their monthly community dinner and food bank. At Gonzaga University this is Fall Family Weekend, and the university’s Spokane alumni chapter has invited students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends to participate in a canned food drive. GU also will have a pancake breakfast and auction to raise funds for a local nonprofit organization. It is Parents Weekend at Whitworth University, which will have its Tour of Service, with volunteers visiting the various agencies and service organizations with which Whitworth partners for community engagement and service learning. It’s Family Weekend at Whitman College, too, and Saturday is Make a Difference Day. Visiting family members will join their Whitman students in volunteer service around Walla Walla, and students will host a wine auction to raise funds for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Walla Walla University had its service day a few weeks ago, and has posted a nice story about the activities.

Every year independent college campus communities give well in excess of half a million hours of volunteer service to their communities. Thanks for all that you do!

There’s been a fair amount of ink spilled and pixels expended in the last week about college enrollment and tuition. The College Board sparked the latest round of tuition talk with the release of its annual reports on tuition and financial aid earlier this week. As has been widely reported, tuition and fees at public baccalaureate colleges and universities are up 6.5 percent over last year, and at independent colleges the increase is 4.4 percent.

That jibes with what the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities found in a survey of its membership earlier this year, which put the average tuition increase at private colleges at 4.3 percent, the smallest in 37 years. Independent colleges boosted their financial aid budgets by nine percent, according to the survey.

In Washington we topped those numbers. Public baccalaureate institutions in the state are hiking tuition by 14 percent this year and next. The 10 members if Independent Colleges of Washington, on the other hand, raised tuition and fees 4.9 percent, on average. They also boosted their financial aid budgets by 10.2 percent. In all, ICW members will give more than $245 million of institutional financial aid to students this year. Ninety percent of students receive aid.

It’s important to keep that commitment to financial aid in mind. NAICU points out a fact from the College Board report that isn’t getting much coverage: inflation-adjusted net tuition—the true price students pay after financial aid—has actually dropped by 8.6 percent at independent colleges over the last five years.

Amid all of this, enrollment looks pretty good this fall. The Associated Press reported last week that, despite the sharp tuition increases, lots of students turned up for classes at the public institutions. ICW members’ enrollment rose by a little over 2.5 percent, which is a bit higher than their typical growth of one to two percent. Interestingly, there was a boomlet in transfer students, which are up 7.7 percent. Clearly, the institutions’ commitment to financial aid, and good investments in grant aid from the state and federal governments, have helped keep a rigorous independent higher education affordable for everyone.

On Friday we posted a short note about state Rep. Reuven Carlyle’s blog series on higher education. Carlyle posted the third and final installment in his series yesterday. While he doesn’t claim to have the answers, he does call out several areas in which he thinks change is needed. We’re happy to see that Carlyle agrees with one of Independent Colleges of Washington’s central values, that a stronger partnership is needed between the state and independent institutions:

“What of our partners in the private universities who operate under the public radar but perform such a vital function in our state? We need to bring them under the tent of expectations and public role in a meaningful way based upon partnerships. Why do we hesitate to embrace them so (such as in our financial aid policies) when they contribute in such a positive fashion to our goal of educating more people to higher levels? They struggle with many of the same issues, of course, but do so with greater flexibility.”

Rep. Carlyle

A few other suggestions from Carlyle: Cut the UW loose from state micromanagement and let Washington’s flagship institution operate as it would, including giving it full tuition-setting authority. Better coordinate the work of the Workforce Training and Education Board and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. Build better ties between higher education and industry. Rethink the missions of comprehensive, regional institutions. Break down “silos” and make sure the money follows the students.

Ultimately, Carlyle concludes that higher education is too important to be treated as an afterthought, an easy budget cut  in tough economic times because state support of colleges is not constitutionally mandated.

“In the end, the economic, social and political challenge of educating more people to higher levels has become too serious and difficult for government to handle alone as a department down the hall. This challenge belongs to us all.”

These are oversimplifications of three posts that total more than 7,500 words. The series is worth spending some time with.

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle is a prolific blogger. Over the last couple of days he’s published lengthy posts about the transformation of higher education in Washington, with a third installment due any time. If you’re interested in higher ed policy—and if you’re reading “One Student at at Time”, we think you are—Carlyle’s blog is worth a look.

A week ago I was in sunny Spokane strolling around the campus at Gonzaga University. As if to remind me that Independent Colleges of Washington Service Month is under way, GU has hung banners like the one at right from many of the light standards around the campus. Most of ICW’s member colleges have some reference to service to community in their mission statements, and those are more than mere words. They live it, contributing upwards of half a million hours of volunteer time in their communities every year.

News came from Gonzaga this week that they’re about to celebrate 10 years of involvement with the Mary Stuart Rogers foundation, which funds Mary Stuart Rogers scholarships for students who are committed to serving others. Many GU students will be participating in a neighborhood cleanup project this weekend.

Some of the other projects coming up: Students at Saint Martin’s University will help out with a planting day with Lacey’s Woodland Trail Greenway Association. University of Puget Sound students will spend part of their “Alternative Fall Break” with “Aware Tacoma!” doing volunteer service for a number of nonprofits in the city. Monday kicks off a “mini” volunteer fair at PLU, where they’re trying doing a similar event each month, instead of one big fair at the start of the academic year, to keep the service opportunities in front of students all year round. Walla Walla University had its Day of Service Wednesday.

Thanks, students, for all you do in your communities!

ProjectOpportunity.net actively serves Washington parents and students seeking quality information on the college admissions process.

Independent Colleges of Washington debuted ProjectOpportunity.net in 2007 with support from the  Ben B. Cheney Foundation. We brought the best minds together to create the site: high school guidance counselors, the Washington Council of High School College Relations,  admissions and financial aid officers at our member colleges, and other experts in the field of higher education. And we have seen the results with visitors from throughout the state of Washington—and even across the globe!

While the site is updated throughout the year, in the spirit of constant improvement we want your thoughts!

Visit www.ProjectOpportunity.net and browse around. Before you leave, click on the red survey button in the upper left and leave us your thoughts in a quick survey. If you are a Washington high school or college student, you could be eligible for an Amazon Kindle or a $250 book scholarship!

Later this month, we are excited to launch a Spanish language translation and mini-site for students at the community colleges hoping to transfer to a four-year college. More information to come when the new sections go live.

Enjoy ProjectOpportunity.net, give us your thoughts, and pass on the Kindle / scholarship contest to any Washington students!