By Steve Babcock
With the proposal last week that next year’s tuition may rise 4.5 percent, the administration promised to increase financial aid accordingly.
Several administrators gathered last Wednesday night to calm students’ fears and address their concerns, focusing mainly on financial aid issues.
“Northeastern – and this is unique – guarantees that students will receive the same aid for all five years,” said Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Philomena Mantella. “We don’t want families to deal with the uncertainty each and every year about what they’ll have to do to meet the costs.”
She said the increase of $2 million allocated for financial aid in the 2004-05 budget will be split between incoming freshmen and current students. The increase in aid is directly proportional to the increase in tuition, temporarily set at 4.5 percent.
Money from the increase, Mantella said, will be used to provide for families who demonstrate more need-based on either the raised tuition, or other circumstances that show students have a major need for more money. Such cases warrant an individual review, a process that is built into the five-year guarantee.
At the heart of the issue, though, is a constant insistence by the Student Government Association and other students that Northeastern does not currently supply enough financial aid to meet student need.
The gap, according to SGA Vice President for Financial Affairs Michael Benson, is currently around $7 million, a number that has been halved because of the five year guarantee and an increase in financial aid resources over the past five years.
Despite the improvements, though, many in SGA say the university still has work to do.
“That gap is still too big,” said SGA Senator Andres Vargas after the meeting. “Make no mistake about it, financial aid is not increasing this year. Don’t go home thinking that there’s going to be money so you can adjust your package, because there’s not.”
Such a yearly adjustment has been proposed by Benson and SGA.
Although a yearly review would seemingly put the university back where it was, Benson said the five-year guarantee would still be included so the university couldn’t take money away without warning.
“What we want to do is a hybrid between what the university used to have and what we currently have,” Benson said. “The five-year guarantee was a move in the right direction, but it’s necessary to re-review every case. There are cases where students’ situations change while they are here, especially with tuition going up.”
SGA President Michael Romano has also argued for adjusting financial aid packages so they are proportional to tuition increases for every student, rather than those who demonstrate major need.
Some students are concerned, though, that a yearly review would give students less aid because their family would make more money in that time when others made less.
“[The yearly review] wouldn’t be a good idea, said Justin Caravella, a sophomore electrical engineering major. “It’s not fair because the students whose families make more would pay more.”
Others said another tweaking of the financial aid policy would be useful so students who needed more money would get it.
“I would agree with [a new plan],” said Kefhie Lewis, a freshman medical laboratory science major. “My family doesn’t make that much, and Northeastern is expensive. I think it would be better if they [review aid packages] yearly.”
To implement such a yearly review, though, Mantella said the $7 millon gap of students’ need that is currently unmet would have to be closed first.
“Once we get to the point where we can initially meet every students’ need, then we can start reviewing everyone’s need more regularly,” she said. “We’re not there yet. We have to make sure we can provide for everyone’s five year guarantee.”