Across the country, many incoming and current college students worry about how they will pay for their college tuition under the new presidency, especially in Minnesota, where the MN State Grant was previously reduced for the 2024-25 academic year.
When it comes to trying to get an education, money is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. For many students like myself, scholarships and grants took the majority of the financial burden off our shoulders. In my case, I am a first-generation college student who comes from a low-income household, which means I rely on scholarships to attend college. While I am only able to speak from my experience, many college students can relate to relying on scholarships to cover part or most of their tuition. One of the grants that helped was the MN State Grant, which anyone in the state of Minnesota who filed their FAFSA can get.
However, one month before the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, many college students received an email from their respective financial aid offices.
“The Minnesota Office of Higher Education recently informed colleges of significant reductions in state grant awards due to funding shortages. Because these grants come directly from the state, we are required to adjust your award amount accordingly,” Hamline’s Financial Aid Office said in an email.
Later in the email the Financial Aid Office goes on to say that Hamline specifically has allocated additional resources to help minimize the impact to students’ financial aid.
Given that many of us received this email only a month before school, and despite the university having found more resources for students, this sent many of us into panic mode as we did not know how much our grant was reduced until we got an updated financial aid package. Like I have said before, a good majority of college students rely on grants and scholarships like this to pay for tuition and every dollar counts. Current and incoming students had to come up with ways to get a little extra money to cover the shortfall of the budget that additional resources had not covered, like getting either their first or another part-time job. I fell into this category, but I had known that at some point during my time at college I would have to get a part-time job that was year-round in addition to my on-campus job.
However, this would not be the only challenge and worry that college students would face during the academic year. With us only being barely a month into the new year, we elected a new president of the United States, and just shortly after more bad news came. Under the new presidential administration, the Department of Education has been put into the spotlight as they plan on getting rid of the Federal Department of Education and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, which directly affects scholarships that help even out the playing field for Indigenous students and students of color to attend college, many of those scholarships are either based on race or ethnicity, which falls under DEI.
Now, given the political climate, some will argue that these changes are necessary, especially surrounding DEI and how it connects to scholarships and grants. When it comes to certain scholarships and grants, many are geared toward marginalized groups, for example, Indigenous students, that come with specific eligibility requirements that only those who are a part of that identity can meet.
“If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” acting assistant secretary for civil rights for the Education Department Craig Trainor wrote in the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter.
With all that being said, affording tuition is getting harder each year, no matter what political party you align yourself with, and unfortunately, we do not know how that will look for the next three years. Fortunately, there is something everyone can do whether you are a college student, a parent of one or just a concerned person. We all have voices, and now more than ever, our voices are powerful and can bring change, even if it is only here in Minnesota.
One of the ways we can do this is by reaching out to those in power about our concerns, for example, in the email from our Financial Aid Office, they encourage us to contact our Governor Tim Walz, Minnesota Office of Higher Education Commissioner Dennis Olson and our state representatives. While it is intimidating reaching out to them, now more than ever do we need to do this. By reaching out, we can bring these concerns to their attention and reinforce that these are matters that are important to us and for many of us, vital to our futures and careers.
Even if you do not know who any of these people are or who your representatives are, one quick Google search can lead to how to contact them and find various email templates to send them. Otherwise, you can attend events that allow you a chance to speak to these people and give them your concerns, for example on Tuesday, March 11, I will be attending Hamline’s Day at the Capitol event where us students will be able to have conversations with our legislators and advocate for funding the state grant program.
No matter what happens tomorrow, next week or in a year, I want everyone to remember we are all in this together and together we can bring change, even if it is only through advocating for the MN State Grant. It is a start and hopefully one that will continue through the next three years or however many it takes. This article is only one voice, but I hope it inspires many to add their voices and perspectives into many concerns, not only just about affording next year's tuition.
