Promise partly covered in spring
By Meredith Skrzypczak (Last updated: 11/02/09 11:39pm)Although MSU students who qualified for the now-eliminated Michigan Promise Scholarship will receive full funding this semester, they might have to search elsewhere for funds next semester.
MSU will use federal stimulus funds to pay students who had expected to receive the Michigan Promise Scholarship this semester, but only students with the highest financial need will be fully covered next semester.
“Not all Promise grant recipients will receive money in the spring,” MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said.
MSU revealed the plan at the Board of Trustees meeting Friday and announced plans to ease tuition costs next semester.
MSU received $7.9 million in federal stimulus funds from the state and will use $6 million to address student needs resulting from the state’s failure to fund the Promise Scholarship, said Dave Byelich, the director of MSU’s Office of Planning and Budgets.
For the fall, the more than 8,000 MSU students who expected Michigan Promise Scholarship funding will receive the full payment of $500 for the semester, said Rick Shipman, director of the MSU Office of Financial Aid.
Students who display “exceptional need” also will receive $500 for the spring semester, but those with lesser need will receive less, he said.
Students who qualify for the Pell Grant will be considered to have “exceptional need,” said Val Meyers, associate director of the MSU Office of Financial Aid. Officials haven’t established how many students that includes.
“For the highest need students we are proposing a full $1,000 award from the stimulus money,” Byelich said. “Those other students who are promise recipients would receive $500 that would make them whole for the fall semester.”
Advertising and retail sophomore Emily Doyle said she does not expect to qualify for the full scholarship amount in the spring and will have to find another way to make up for the lost money.
“You definitely bank on it,” she said. “(If the funds are not covered) it’s not worth the process you took taking the (Michigan Merit Examination), it’s not worth the effort you put in. I’ll find a different way to get it.”
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said after the spring semester, it is unlikely MSU will have any stimulus funds left to continue replacing students’ lost scholarship money.
“This is a one time benefit because the money is one time,” she said.
MSU will use the additional $1.9 million in stimulus funds to provide a $5 per credit hour refund for all resident undergraduate students next semester, Byelich said. For a student taking the minimum full-time course load of 12 credit hours, the refund would amount to $60.
Psychology and human resources senior Ryan McNamara said the $5 per credit hour does not seem like a huge help.
“I guess it’s a start, but it’s not really that much,” he said.
The MSU Board of Trustees created a plan this past spring to deal with the possible loss of the scholarship, Byelich said.
Originally Published: 11/02/09 11:39pm
Kate
11/02/09 11:54pmGood for them. At least they are trying after the state screwed us up big time. Many universities are making their students pay the whole $1,000 because they simply can’t cover it.
The state needs to get it together and give us what was promised. Shame on the Senate and the House for screwing students out of money that they were counting on. If they want to revive the state, they need a well-educated work force and these continued cuts to educational funding are simply unacceptable.
Tony
11/03/09 5:15amAnd the whining by mostly upper-middle class pampered college students continues. I’m sorry, losing your little scholarship is not the worst possible thing that can happen to a person. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs over this budget. Hmm, that seems slightly worse than your scholarship. A lot of our most vulnerable citizens are getting their health care slashed, so some of them with chronic illnesses are probably going to get worse or die.
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Need but not execptional
11/03/09 8:32amnot only am i missing the MI Promise, but the Michigan Competitive. that is $2,300 the state screwed me out of. MSU i just wish to thank you for atleast covering ~20% of what i am missing.
Tony, You're an idiot
11/03/09 10:18amTony, whiny upper class? Give me a break. I have one unemployed and one permanently disabled parent. Not only do I pay for my own college, I am also the only one working so I give THEM money. I was counting on that scholarship to help me out.
Don’t tell me about being uninsured, I already am. Don’t tell me about unemployment, I deal with it everyday.
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ZT
11/03/09 11:25amDear Tony,
Quit whining
Sean
11/03/09 12:02pmDear Tony, it might be a good idea to assume that the only thing you know about a person commenting is no more than what is in the comment. With love and affection, your fans.
Tony
11/03/09 7:39pmI didn’t mention anyone by name. However, if you take a snapshot of MSU students, most of them are of the upper middle class persuasion. That’s just demographics. Of course there will be some students who will actually be hurt by this, but the vast majority won’t be.
Didn’t Carly Simon write a song about you people?
Carolyn
11/03/09 8:09pmWow, Tony. Apparently you don’t quite understand what it’s like to be a student right now. I’m fortunte that my parents are both still workng, but many of my friends (even at the less expensive universities) are counting on whatever money they can get to attend college. Banks have tightened up on loans, and it’s extremely difficult to get any financial aid right now.
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Tony
11/04/09 2:24amMy stats are from the Office Of Financial aid. How they’re less accurate than ‘All the people I know’ is beyond me, but it is an interesting theory.
And it’s not like I graduated in ’68. I got my B.S. in 2000. I just finished my doctorate a few years ago. You can say I’ve been around the university. I’m probably TA’ed a few of you young ones.
And I’m sorry, in general, you guys are not the Spartans of old.
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Carolyn
11/04/09 8:23pmI’m actually not a Spartan. I’m a student from SVSU, and I saw this headline on iGoogle and was interested in seeing how MSU handled the Promise Scholarship situation. Although we’re the least expensive university in Michigan, there is still a lot of struggle for students to make ends meet. And it is incredibly disheartening to be promised $4000 your senior year of high school, only to have that retracted and you’re stuck with the bill.
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America
11/04/09 11:29pmI wonder what this will mean for community colleges and if enrollment will increase as a result. I graduated from grad school at MSU this year, but I relied on the Promise for my first two years. Were I a high-school senior now, I think I’d be seriously considering doing the community college route. My parents didn’t write one check for college. They did let me live at home, though, so that cut my expenses in half.
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Carlos
11/09/09 10:33pmHey Tony, theirs other places to cut besides the promise scholarship. Education is one of the most important things in our country because it’s our future. Why don’t the cut unemployment, many of the people collecting should’ve saved money while they had a job instead of living paycheck to paycheck.
Rick
11/13/09 2:24pmI have two sons at MSU and this will hurt. I was laid off in 2004 and have worked for 1/3 the salary ever since. My kids deserve a college education and we’ll make sure they get it, with or without the “Promise”. It still hurts because we were counting on it.