5 questions for ... Lonnie McNew

Photo by Desirée Stover

Administrator shares TU's commitment to helping disadvantaged students enroll, succeed

TU's senior associate vice president for Academic Affairs explains what the university to doing to make higher education more accessible to needy students.

Why is it so important to improve access to TU?

We don’t want lack of money to dissuade those seeking the educational opportunities TU has to offer. As state support declines, tuition rises, making TU (and other public universities) less affordable to economically disadvantaged people. Those who enroll struggle to succeed as full-time students—they borrow heavily and many work 20 or 30 hours per week to make ends meet. There may also be family, housing and transportation issues. All of these things can make it difficult to keep up academically. And if they leave without a degree, the student-loan debt can be crippling.    

How does the university define “economically disadvantaged?”

TU’s operational definition reflects federal financial-aid guidelines that apply to students of all races and ethnicities. Students who qualify for federal Pell Grants are the neediest.    

What are we doing to help these students financially?

Our financial aid office packages federal, state and institutional aid to qualified students. We’ve dramatically increased the amount of institutionally funded (TU’s funds, as opposed to federal or state funds) need-based aid available to these students. Need-based grants reduce the amount that students need to borrow; we’ve seen a 23 percent reduction in debt for Pell grant recipients in the past three years. TU apportions federal, state and institutional need-based aid and federal money on a first-come, first-served basis, but it’s never enough. Every year we have to turn away hundreds of qualified applicants for whom we have no funds.

How much has TU’s need-based aid increased?  

In the 2001-2202 academic year, TU’s spending on institutional need-based grant aid was less than $2 million. This year, we estimate that our final spending will exceed $7 million.

Do economically disadvantaged students require other kinds of support?

Once they’ve enrolled, of course we want them to do well. Many economically disadvantaged students are the first in their families to go to college and many have academic challenges. TU offers an array of services designed to help students succeed. The Academic Advising Center offers placement testing and advising, the Academic Achievement Center provides tutoring services and study skills workshops. The SAGE program pairs new students from diverse backgrounds with peer mentors who assist them with attaining their academic goals and encourage them to involve themselves in campus activities. TU recently extended its shuttle service to Baltimore’s Penn Station in an effort to better serve students who rely on MTA buses to get to campus. S-3 is a new support initiative for students who’ve been identified through SAT scores, high school GPAs and placement scores as needing special help. Orientation 050, a section of which I co-teach with Dr. Jana Varwig, focuses on developing healthy attitudes, self-motivation, time-management and study skills for academic success. Our students seem to be doing well in spite of challenges that more affluent students don’t have to deal with.

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