NEWS | September 2009 - all articles

This page includes all articles in the September issue of NEWS. Return to summary or go to the NEWS archive.

Reliance on borrowing to pay for higher education in flux
Retention programs help students succeed
Business leader raises questions of Olympic proportions
Briefs

Reliance on borrowing to pay for higher education in flux

Minnesota undergraduates borrowed more than $1.2 billion in 2007 to pay for college, up 14 percent from 2005. Increasingly they have been turning to private loans. Student use of these private loans grew 52 percent from 2005 to 2007. These numbers come from the August 2008 financial aid report from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. It shows students borrowing $211 million from private lenders in 2007 compared to $159 million in 2005 (this does not include second mortgages or home equity lines of credit).

For students attending nonprofit institutions, which includes the 17 members of the Minnesota Private College Council, borrowing from private lenders also increased 52 percent.

The increasing reliance on private loans is of concern for higher education leaders and policy makers, as well as student advocates. The challenge with private loans is that the rates will be higher and the terms less flexible than with loans students secure through government programs. The availability of these private loans has already begun to constrict, given changes in the credit markets. The latest financial upheavals on Wall Street will make credit conditions even tighter, especially for families with low credit scores or current credit problems.

While federal loans to students still represent the largest source of loan aid, they grew very modestly due to low borrowing limits. Federal parent loans grew much more dramatically, however (see chart).

Increasing reliance on borrowing has been propelled by relatively stagnant state and federal investments in need-based aid. Recent decisions by federal and state lawmakers have allowed for an additional $11.3 million increase into the State Grant program, but that investment needs to be far greater if we are to reverse the trend of forcing families to borrow increasingly large sums to afford higher education.

Students and their families will continue to rely on borrowing to help pay for college expenses. The key questions for the future are:

• Will the capital markets continue to be a reliable source of reasonably priced loans?
• What effect would a federal monopoly on student loans have for borrowers and higher education institutions?
• How will students and families who financial institutions deem higher-risk be assured access to manageable levels of higher education debt?

Retention programs help students succeed

When Jason Berve enrolled at The College of St. Scholastica in 2005, it was through the First Year Development Program that allows students who do not meet the admission requirements to enter the college on a conditional basis. One of the requirements was to enroll in the Student Support Services (SSS) program, which provided tutoring, mentoring and other kinds of assistance. Now a senior in pre-med with a 3.8 GPA, Berve credits the program with his success. "SSS has shaped me into a well-rounded student. I wouldn't be where I am without it."

Programs that support new and at-risk students and help them integrate into the campus community can make a big difference in whether or not the students continue in school. Findings in two ACT reports show that these “retention programs” can assist students in making the transition to college life and ultimately completing their degrees.

According to David Bauman, assistant dean of students for advisement and retention at St. Scholastica, first-year students are reviewed at the four- and eight-week marks, attend meetings where they can talk with faculty, and have ready access to “academic role models” who live in student housing. They also take Dignitas — a first-year seminar program with the theme, ‘The responsible self.’ “Dignitas has played a key role in our retention,” Bauman said.

All college students can benefit from efforts to make them feel a part of campus life, but it’s especially important for students who are at-risk — including students with low ACT scores, with borderline GPAs and without any family history of college-completion.

Student Support Services is one of several federally funded TRiO programs — educational outreach programs to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. SSS serves first-generation, low-income and disabled college students who need extra academic support. Students receive one-on-one tutoring and counseling and attend special classes and workshops. At St. Scholastica, about 175 students participate each year (Carleton College, Augsburg College and St. Olaf College also have SSS programs, as do several public universities in the state).

St. Scholastica SSS students in the Loft hangout

Dory Pohl, who directs the St. Scholastica program, told of a recent graduate who had participated in SSS. “After being out of school for 15 years, technology was different and we helped her improve her computer skills,” Pohl said. “We also helped her brush up on math to prepare for a statistics course and since she was a single mother we even taped some lectures for her when she couldn’t get to class.” Pohl noted that the student had also developed a supportive network of peers at the SSS campus hangout, the ‘Loft.’

“We’ve been able to create a community that helps our SSS students feel connected,” Pohl said. “And we provide services that help them graduate.”

A fresh start

At Bethel University, Sam Mulberry directs the Fresh Start program, which is for provisionally-admitted students. “At the beginning, students are most anxious about just getting through their first semester,” he said. Although all students take a freshmen seminar, it’s a more intensive version for Fresh Start students. “After fall semester and the January term last year, 85 percent of our students were in good academic standing (GPA of 2.0 or better); I feel good about that number — it’s a good indicator,” Mulberry said.

Mulberry is one of three faculty who teach the freshmen seminar courses to Fresh Start participants. Each faculty member also serves as their students’ academic advisor. “I see my students multiple times a week and have a chance to build relationships with them,” Mulberry said.

There are two measures of success for Mulberry: students who stay at Bethel and finish their degree and students who transfer but do so with a GPA above 2.0. “I think we’re doing better with these students,” he said.

When he first started teaching four years ago, Mulberry feared that students would be resentful about being placed in Fresh Start. “Then in one of my first classes, a student said she viewed the program as ‘a door into the school I really wanted to go to.’”

Now that the first group of students Mulberry worked with are seniors, he admits to no longer worrying about them. “I see a level of growth with these students…they have real career plans, real ambition.”

Especially for parents

A student mother (left) meets with her Access and Success mentor

At the College of St. Catherine, the Access and Success program focuses on women who are mothers. “We’ve thought about the things that can get in the way of these students’ success,” director Joan Demeules said. Staffed by social workers, the program provides academic support but also helps with other issues. “We collaborate with CommonBond to make sure students have stable housing and we help them find childcare,” Demeules said. The program has expanded as new needs have been identified. Two computer labs now have adjacent children’s play areas, laptops can be borrowed, there are volunteer mentors, a lactation room and emergency loans. “Helping with car repairs is big,” said Demeules.

The goal is to retain students from one year to the next at the same rate as for the general student population. Retention rate for all St. Kate’s students is 79 percent; for the student parents it’s currently at 78 percent.

Demeules described a recent success story. “When this woman came to us, she had one failed attempt at college and two kids.” With extensive support from Access and Success (including having a staff member go with her to a parent-teacher conference), the student graduated in May. “For the first time in her life, she’s making a good salary,” Demeules said.

Demeules believes that there is a lot of energy and interest in women completing their education, especially those who face a lot of barriers. “We have the flexibility and skill to address the specific circumstances that women find themselves in — our program can help them succeed,” she said.

Retention programs need to be geared to the needs of the individual campus. At St. Scholastica they started by looking at students’ lives and what they face during their college year, Bauman said. “There’s so many things we’ve changed to address their needs.”

Business leader raises questions of Olympic proportions

"Did you enjoy the Beijing Olympics? I didn’t. And I love China. I didn’t enjoy watching the Summer Games of 2008 and all the buzz going on over there because I kept thinking about two numbers: 25 and 800."

"The first number, 25, is the percentage of 9th graders in my state who will actually go on to graduate annually from a college or university over the coming years. I think this is a state’s “Smart Number” (kind of like that bed with the “Sleep Number”)… The other figure, 800, is the number of new colleges and universities being built in China. This decade. The U.S. adds maybe five per year."

"…This is a big problem.…"

Read the complete post, Vanishing Customers, Vanishing Employees. Tim Morin is a board member of the Minnesota Private College Council.

Briefs

• How Minnesota's need-based grants for college fuel our economic future is explored in a MN2020 essay by David B. Laird, Jr., MPCC president.
• New MPCC ads promoting the benefits of private colleges have begun appearing online and in print. A dozen newspapers serving communities of color are running “excellence within reach” print ads that feature our alumni. The online ads focus on key facts tied to science graduates, study abroad participation and graduation rates.
• Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S. according to the Census Bureau at 15.1 percent. In Minnesota, 205,896 residents are identified as Latinos, compared to 195,138 a year ago (5.5 percent increase). View more demographic informaton
• College affordability belongs in debate, a Sept. 19 editorial in the Star Tribune, urges candidates to have ideas about how to make college more affordable.