Published Saturday, September 27, 2008 6:05 AM
A formal welcome
By MATTHEW WATKINS
matthew.watkins@theeagle.com
Texas A&M University President Elsa Murano holds up a medallion after being formally invested as the university's 23rd leader during the Texas A&M academic convocation ceremony at Rudder Theatre.
Murano announces new funding
Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva
Texas A&M University President Elsa Murano holds up a medallion after being formally invested as the university's 23rd leader during the Texas A&M Academic Convocation ceremony at Rudder Theatre on campus.
Eagle photo by Stuart Villanueva
Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost Karan Watson carries the university mace in a procession across campus with faculty members during Texas A&M's Academic Convocation ceremony Friday.
By MATTHEW WATKINS
matthew.watkins@theeagle.com
Texas A&M University President Elsa Murano announced Friday that the university would pay tuition for any incoming student whose household income is less than $60,000.
The Aggie Assurance Program will also be offered retroactively to students who began their freshman year this fall. It will cover state-mandated, designated and differential tuition, but not fees, books or boarding.
The university estimates tuition is about $5,000 per student for the 2008-09 year. Officials said some students who have already paid tuition will receive refund checks from the school's financial aid office. The cost of attending A&M is about $20,000 per year for in-state residents.
More than 1,500 current freshmen will have their tuition paid for over the next four years, and officials estimate that more than 5,200 students will be affected once the program is fully implemented. A&M currently has about 8,100 freshmen and more than 48,000 total students.
"Despite our efforts to keep tuition increases as low as possible, many of our students find it difficult to pay for college without mounting significant amounts of debt in the form of student loans," Murano said. "Today, we will offer these scholarships retroactively to our freshmen in the Class of 2012, which will provide much-needed relief to our middle-income students and their families now and into the future."
Students at A&M will be eligible for their first four years of school if they fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Scholarships and Financial Aid annually.
Any aid that the student already receives from the school or from outside sources will count toward the fund, and the university will make up the difference.
The program will increase the school's financial aid spending by about $3.3 million once it is fully implemented, university officials estimated.
Murano announced the plan during the school's annual academic convocation, which formally recognizes the beginning of the school year. The ceremony was originally scheduled for Sept. 12 but was pushed back because of Hurricane Ike.
This year's event also marked the formal installation of the Cuban-born Murano as president of the university. She was appointed to the position in January and is the first woman and Hispanic to be president of A&M.
A&M leaders presented Murano with various symbolic gifts for her installation, and a student group performed the famous Cuban song Guantanamera as Murano grinned widely and bobbed her head.
"You have to recognize that anything is possible," Murano said. "Never would anyone have imagined that we would be playing Guantanamera at an academic convocation at Texas A&M University."
But Murano paid little attention to the historic significance of her being installed as president of a school known for its male-only roots and demographically homogenous reputation. She instead focused on the progress she said the university still needs to make.
"The Class of 2012 includes the highest number of Hispanic and African-American freshmen in the university's history -- a 16 percent increase over last year," she said. "In addition, about 25 percent of the freshman class consists of first-generation college students. I am proud of the strides we have made ... but frankly, we're not yet where we need or want to be."
She said the school is pursuing state funding for programs to promote the benefits of college degrees in major urban and remote rural areas and partner with high schools to help students apply and find funding to study at A&M.
"We must find more ways to reach cohorts of students who previously have had little access to higher education," she said.
The tuition program is aimed more at middle-income students because many lower-income students already receive financial aid.
A&M officials said they knew of some schools that provide tuition for students whose families make up to $40,000, but said they believe the program is unprecedented for a school of A&M's size and stature. Harvard University, which is a private school, announced in 2006 that it would not expect students from families with incomes under $60,000 to contribute to the cost of their education at the school.
Comments
[comment]
14 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
dick75 On:
Wednesday, October 08, 2008 7:51 AM
Comment Title: Free Ride
Wonder how long before when you call any number on Campus, you have to dial (2) for English. I worked through school and we make too much money for a free ride. With all the grants and loans available a deserving freshman can go to college.
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Posted by:
baren On:
Wednesday, October 01, 2008 2:27 PM
Comment Title: I LOVE JESUS
what's wrong with special interest groups, are they not americans too? hey blame your forefathers for enslaving and using people for their own gain. what comes around goes around honeybun even if it takes 200 hundred years BABY! DEAL WITH IT. don't you believe in jesus? i'm sick of devil worshippers whose forefathers owned slaves and racist complain all day. why complain if your money is putting someone through school? are you afraid that they will succeed? listen i need all of you to stop worshipping money and start believing in jesus. read the bible for godsakes, and for all of you who don't believe in jesus and do worship the devil....continue on with your hate parade counting your pennies. college station prides itself on being religous, but from the recent post i believe that they worship the devil and money and i wonder what they doing on sundays in those places they call church. ha ha you people are so jaded that you can't even see how evil you are. on judgement day please tell god that you didn't want your money going to special interest groups and see where you end up, i doubt it will be heaven.
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Posted by:
On:
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 2:02 PM
Comment Title: Government at A&M
"The Class of 2012 includes the highest number of Hispanic and African-American freshmen in the university's history" Another word for Special Interest Groups. I'm sick of the majority bailing out the minority.
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Posted by:
On:
Monday, September 29, 2008 3:20 PM
Comment Title: Preferences
I don't go to church, but unlike you, I have no problem with those that do. As to helping others, I prefer to direct my charitable contributions myself, rather than having it done by some governmental entity.
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Posted by:
isn't this the place where people claim to love jesus so much. On:
Monday, September 29, 2008 2:46 PM
Comment Title:
What place are you talking about idiot?
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Posted by:
i love jesus On:
Monday, September 29, 2008 2:26 PM
Comment Title: i wonder
why are some people upset when they see their money going towards helping poor people getting a college education?, this is a surprise to me, isn't this the place where people claim to love jesus so much. don't you want to help people? or do you just worship money? what's the point of having all these churches every 2 blocks, what are you guys doing in there? don't they teach you anything in those churches you guys go to every sunday? hm?
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Posted by:
stricter qualification requirements. On:
Sunday, September 28, 2008 9:18 PM
Comment Title:
Good luck on this. AP reports 60% of four year college freshmen need to enroll in remedial courses. The taxpayer funds babysitting for over 50% of kids in Kindergarten through High School. Now they are going to take care of them for another four years. I feel for any wage earner not employed by some form of governmental entity. They are keeping this country afloat.
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Posted by:
On:
Sunday, September 28, 2008 7:27 PM
Comment Title: No blank checks or entitlement
I would love that no one be denied an opportunity at an education because they can't afford tuition, but need to have strings to make it sustainable while minimizing impact on paying students and maintaining excellence. There must be citizenship requirements, payback programs, gpa requirements, and stricter qualification requirements.
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Posted by:
Thing On:
Sunday, September 28, 2008 10:35 AM
Comment Title: Free tuition?
As an aggie grad, I think this is ridiculous. $60,000 a year is a lot of income to measure as a cap for free tuition. At the time I went to A&M, I worked and put myself through. Sure it took a little longer, but I finished with no help from the government. And as we all know, nothing is free. Who is really paying for this are the students who pay the full tuition amounts and their tax paying parents. This is not the A&M I know.
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Posted by:
Eric Whitehead '92 On:
Sunday, September 28, 2008 12:48 AM
Comment Title: Break out the Hammer and Sickle comrades!
Another shining example of Socialism taking over this country. Who in the world is going to pay for this? The taxpayers, that's who. This is just one more example of the redistribution of wealth from the producers to the non-producers. Where I come from this is called "welfare" - otherwise known as an "entitlement" by the loony left Democrats. Way to go Aggies! Now we can include 'the expansion of Socialism' to our distinguished list of contributions to mankind. Whooooop!
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Posted by:
Bull On:
Sunday, September 28, 2008 12:25 AM
Comment Title: Ridiculous
Someone has an ego the size of Mt. Everest. Take your royalty and go back to Cuba(r) with it.
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Posted by:
baren On:
Saturday, September 27, 2008 12:16 PM
Comment Title: Great!
THIS IS AMAZING!!!, I think this is the best idea a&m has come up with by far. Elsa Murano is a smart woman. i'm in total shock, A&M...wow..this is great
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Posted by:
L. Archer On:
Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:44 AM
Comment Title: financial aid for incomming frosh
Is this for current students that are not freshmen? The rest of us would like a helping hand to graduation, too! It is a great idea that may help those that keep falling through the cracks of all other programs thus far provided. I'll be checking with the FAFSA people on campus also.
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Posted by:
Aggie '64 On:
Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:21 AM
Comment Title:
Who is paying for this? Will this turn out like the finance cos. putting everyone in their own house?
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