3.0-GPA in-state students to get $300

IU President Michael McRobbie announced Tuesday new grants intended to offset tuition increases for in-state students and appease a state senator who has delayed funding for IU building projects in protest of rising tuition.

The University Incentive Grants will give in-state students at IU-Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis $300 toward 2010-11 tuition if they earn a B average both semesters this academic year.

Students earning a B average on other IU campuses will earn $200 toward tuition.

“This will effectively reduce tuition increases for some in-state students to less than 1.5 percent,” McRobbie said Tuesday at an IU press conference in the Indiana Memorial Union. “I suspect a few of our students will feel more pressure from Mom and Dad to get good grades.”

After the announcement, state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, praised McRobbie in a press release for coming up with a way to reduce costs for students.

Kenley, chairman of the state budget committee, had blocked new IU and Purdue building projects from the committee agenda because he was unhappy with the amount of tuition increases at the two universities.

“My understanding is that these new University Incentive Grants will reduce tuition increases over the biennium to about 3 percent each year for all in-state undergraduate students who demonstrate a commitment to degree completion and academic achievement,” Kenley said in a statement.

He said McRobbie deserved “high marks” for a plan that encourages students to work harder in class in return for tuition decreases.

The grants are an expansion of McRobbie’s Degrees of Excellence initiative, one of his efforts to maintain college affordability since his inauguration in 2007.

McRobbie said the funding for the grants is expected to cost the University about $3 million – money that he said will come from existing IU savings, as well as
philanthropic support.

“This really provides an incentive for students to do the best they can in class,” said IU Provost Karen Hanson in an interview after the press conference. “It helps us from a structural standpoint, in terms of being able to retain students, and from an institutional standpoint in terms of pushing our students to be more successful.”

The awards will apply to all full-time IU undergraduates.

While current seniors can earn the grant in just one semester and apply it to spring tuition costs, freshmen, sophomores and juniors must earn 3.0 grade point averages in both fall 2009 and spring 2010.

McRobbie attributed the hikes in tuition to a rising cost of providing an education and the increased numbers of students on IU campuses.

“When the economy declines, university enrollments increase,” he said, “and that’s exactly what we’re seeing across our campuses.”

McRobbie said the Bloomington campus has up to 41,756 students – an increase of about 1,400 since last year, despite a smaller freshman class than last year.

The IU president said a form of the program could continue beyond this biennial cycle if he sees “a substantial increase in retention rates and performance,” but he stopped short of saying the program could be permanent.