Indiana public universities earn 'F' in affordability

Students aren't the only ones getting graded at colleges and universities across the nation.\nSept. 7, Measuring Up, a national report card for higher education, gave Indiana's postsecondary education poor grades in a number of categories, including an 'F' in affordability, a grade that has IU administrators bristling. \nThe annual report card rates all states in categories such as preparation, participation, affordability, completion and benefits. States are evaluated by the progress they have made in each category since the year before.\nAccording to Indiana's 2006 report card on the Measuring Up Web site, the state received mediocre grades in preparing students to succeed in college, enrolling students in higher education, ensuring students earn a certificate or degree in a timely manner and realizing the benefits of a more highly educated population. However, the most noticeable grade was the state's 'F' in providing affordable higher education.\nAccording to Indiana's report card, families currently spend 30 percent of their income -- even after financial aid deductions -- to send their students to public state colleges and universities like IU, whereas families in other states that earned better grades in affordability spend about 16 percent of their income to pay for school.\nThough the grades are for all higher-education institutions within the state, IU administrators don't think IU deserves an 'F' in affordability, said Larry MacIntyre, IU director of media relations.\n"We take issue with Measuring Up's assertion that Indiana has done nothing in the past year to increase affordability," MacIntyre said. "This is not correct. We are continuing to look for ways to keep IU accessible to qualified students from low-income families."\nStudents see the situation differently. Junior David Krasny said he agrees somewhat with Measuring Up's report.\n"It gets expensive real fast, and now I have to get a job," he said.\nIn a letter to the editor in the Indianapolis Star, IU President Adam Herbert said IU is doing everything it can to make certain family income does not prevent students from gaining an education.\nHerbert said IU undergraduates paid an average of $1,000 less than students at other Big Ten schools. Furthermore, in the 2001-02 academic year, students received $46 million in scholarships and financial aid grants, which increased to $74 million by the 2005-06 year.\nJunior John Kennedy said he thinks the amount IU students pay for tuition is high compared to some Big Ten schools.\n"The affordability isn't great as of now," Kennedy said. "I've heard that the amount of financial aid being provided has been decreasing, and since tuition has increased and plans are being made to keep increasing it, this is a problem." \nHerbert has taken additional steps to sharpen focus on the financial needs of students from low-income families. He has created the IU Student Aid and Affordability Task Force, the Herbert's Star editorial said.\nThe group consists of financial aid administrators and faculty experts who will suggest modifications in IU's "awards process" to attend to the needs of students from low-income families.\n"It also will develop a series of need-based student financial aid system improvement recommendations for submission to the Indiana General Assembly and State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana," Herbert wrote in his editorial.