Financial aid amount increasing for some Missouri college students

Compared to the escalating cost of a college degree, it isn't much.

But hundreds of students at Southeast Missouri State University, and thousands more at Missouri's institutions of higher education, will see a slight increase in financial aid.

Gov. Jay Nixon recently announced increased award amounts for students receiving Access Missouri scholarships, the state's largest need-based student financial aid program.

For students enrolled at four-year public institutions, the freed funding will boost individual scholarships by $60, from $950 to $1,010.

Commissioner of Higher Education David Russell said a conservative approach to setting award levels last year enabled the state to increase the award amounts now. Award amounts are based on estimates of the number of eligible students. At the time award amounts are set, usually midsummer, higher education officials don't know how many of those who are eligible will apply and attend college, Russell said. Fewer students than expected took advantage of the financial aid program.

Individual Access Missouri award amounts will increase from $275 to $470 at Missouri's public two-year institutions, and from $1,900 to $2,160 at independent four-year institutions.

With a four-year undergraduate degree from Southeast Missouri State priced about $24,000, a tuition increase all but certain, a student fee increase ahead to pay for campus renovations and deep cuts to or the disappearance of popular financial aid programs, $60 may seem like a drop in the bucket to Southeast students. But higher education officials say in these days of depleted funding streams, it's tough to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"This year it was clear we had additional funds, and they needed to be distributed back to students," said Leroy Wade, assistant commissioner for financial assistance for the Missouri Department of Higher Education.

"In these times, they certainly have needed it. It could help students buy one more book for class, if nothing else."

The state has provided more than $275 million in Access Missouri scholarships since the program was created in 2007. An average of 45,000 students with the greatest financial need receive the scholarship awards each year. At Southeast Missouri State, 2,675 students received the scholarships in the fall 2010 semester, according to the university.

But Access Missouri has been under financial attack during the state budget crises of the past couple of years.

In the current fiscal year, Access Missouri's appropriation began at $82 million, the same amount as the prior year. The governor then cut $50 million from the fund, but the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority agreed to make up about $30 million of the loss. Wade said MOHELA has indicated it would be willing to provide funding again in 2011-12.

U.S. college students dodged a financial aid bullet just before Christmas, when Congress agreed to fund the Pell Grant Program at the maximum level in 2011. Aid will remain at the top limit of $5,550 per eligible student. For the academic year of 2009-10, the latest data available, there were 158,365 Pell recipients in Missouri, although the figures do include some duplication, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The total amount awarded was $562 million.

But funding questions haunt the federal needs-based financial aid program in the years ahead as the college student population grows and lawmakers talk of making difficult budget choices.

The five-year-old Academic Competitiveness Grant, which supplements Pell, is being phased out this year. The grant provides up to $750 for first-year undergraduate students, and up to $1,300 in the second year.

Southeast Missouri State's scholarship review committee has been meeting to address some of the more pressing financial aid concerns, said Debbie Below, the university's assistant vice president for enrollment management and director of admissions.

"We are asking, 'Are we using our dollars appropriately to help as many students as possible?'" she said.

In 2009-2010, the university awarded $10,440,133 in total institutional aid, including endowed scholarships, annual gifts and tuition funded grants, but excluding athletic aid and tuition waivers, according to Southeast statistics. The institution allocated $2,569,580 in athletic awards.

The scholarship review committee hopes to produce a report on financial assistance this spring.

"We're not looking to add or decrease aid, but we want to make sure dollars are allocated to help the greatest number of students," Below said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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