Staff photo by GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer shakes hands with Jamil Scott, academic affairs vice president with the University of Maryland, College Park, during a roundtable discussion Monday at the Waldorf Center for Higher Education.
Federal and state officials spoke with university students about costs and other concerns Monday at the Waldorf Center for Higher Education.
House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) along with federal Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Eduardo M. Ochoa and Del. John L. Bohanan Jr. (D-St. Mary’s) spoke to students about the importance of keeping colleges efficient yet also attempting to lower costs to ensure a better-educated workforce.
Hoyer said Monday at the center, a joint project of the College of Southern Maryland and University of Maryland University College, that the federal role in access and affordability of college has shrunk.
“That’s not good for individual students,” he said.
However, Hoyer said that federal and state programs at the higher education level are not intended for the individual student but more to make sure the country is competitive globally.
Hoyer said that it all links as “if you succeed individually, collectively, we’ll succeed.”
He said the purpose of meeting with students was to figure out “how we make college affordable and accessible to young people and not-so-young people.”
Representatives from 10 Maryland colleges and universities showed up at the Waldorf center to listen to ideas and voice concerns and opinions.
Ochoa reviewed President Barack Obama’s proposal to lower costs, including $1 billion in a Race to the Top competition among states and rewarding schools that keep education costs down, especially for disadvantaged students.
Obama’s proposal also would refocus $10 billion in college funds as incentives to colleges that keep costs down.
Ochoa said what is needed is for colleges and universities to embrace the culture of contained production improvement, or containing costs while increasing efficiency.
An incentive-based approach, Ochoa said, would help institutions and state systems from having students take unnecessary units prior to graduation.
Michael Hullett, St. Mary’s College of Maryland student and Maryland Higher Education Commission student advisory council vice chairman, shared concerns that focusing on certain technical units as opposed to opening students up to various courses for a well-rounded education could hinder liberal arts colleges such as St. Mary’s from getting funding in a competition such as Obama is proposing.
Ochoa said the missions of liberal arts colleges are important and the general education courses offered at liberal arts schools are highly valued.
Bohanan said Maryland has had a great run at addressing increases in tuition, and is in its sixth year of addressing them.
In 2005, he said Maryland was ranked the eighth-highest state in terms of tuition. For the past four years, he said there has been a tuition freeze, contributing to Maryland sliding down to 23rd in terms of highest tuition.
Last year and this year, the state supported a slight tuition increase of 3.4 percent, which he said the governor and state legislature are very supportive of, since it is, Bohanan said, “crucial to a well-educated workforce.”
Bohanan said currently 44 percent of Marylanders have some sort of college education and the state wants to get that to 55 percent.
“That is a very aggressive goal,” he said.
It’s more than just tuition that students and families are paying for, and students were not shy to voice concerns Monday.
Robb Wilmot, University of Maryland University College student advisory council chairman, said as an older student with a family, he would like to see fellowship opportunities offered that are not always geared toward the typical student in his 20s.
Ochoa said it is true that fellowships are geared to pay for living expenses for students who do not typically have a mortgage or a family. Nontraditional students who take these opportunities, Wilmot said, often risk extreme reductions in income.
Wilmot said as the economy shifts, more nontraditional students will face similar problems.
Student loans were another area of concern for students. Hoyer said there were currently programs in place to curb student loan burdens including programs that allow for those who go into public service to receive tuition assistance for a commitment to work in certain areas like a particular school, for example.
Hoyer said also, for new borrowers starting in 2014, there will be a 10 percent cap based on an individual’s discretionary income.
“Clearly we are trying to keep the burden of cost low,” Hoyer said
Sandra Richardson, a student at CSM, said the forum was informative and while Obama has programs in place to help students get through school, once students get out of college, “where are the jobs? That is where the gap is,” she said.
gphillips@somdnews.com