When Access U.Va. was introduced with much fanfare in the spring of 2004, University officials said they hoped it would help assuage the University's high-priced reputation.
Access U.Va. defines a lower-income student as one whose total family income is equal to or less than 200% of the federal poverty line -- approximately $37,700 for a family of four -- and provides those students with an entirely loan-free education.
For other students in need of aid, Access U.Va. pledges to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need, capping loan debt at the equivalent of one year's in-state cost of attendance----currently $16,600---while at the same time providing comprehensive debt management and financial counseling services.
Because the new benefits have been phased in slowly, this year's entering class of 2009 will be the first to enjoy all benefits associated with the program, Director of Student Financial Services Yvonne Hubbard said.
This year, the aid program will benefit from a $4 million infusion of funds approved by the Board of Visitors in June, raising the amount spent by the University on financial aid to over $20 million a year.
While Hubbard said it is too early to deem the infant program a success, she did point out that, in last year's entering class, 70 lower-income students were offered loan-free educations. She added that the University will fund debt-free educations for 224 lower-income students, 193 first years and 31 transfer students, starting this fall.
"We had in own mind to increase the lower-income students by 0.5 percent," Hubbard said. "It increased by 2.2 percent. So it did better than we thought."
And while many University students and staff have expressed concern that the Commonwealth's controversial "Higher Education Restructuring Act" proposal, designed to provide public universities with more autonomy from state regulation and the agency to more liberally raise tuition levels, could lead to additional hardships for lower-income students, state officials are working hard to prevent such a situation.
The act stipulates that universities must keep themselves "affordable" in exchange for increased operational freedom, although that word has yet to be defined in any concrete terms.
"Governor Warner has insisted from the very beginning that appropriate levels of financial aid needed to be part of these restructuring agreements," Kevin Hall, spokesperson for Gov. Mark R. Warner said. "As the first member of his family to graduate college and then only with the help of student loans, he is extremely sensitive to the need to keep the doors open to students regardless of economic circumstances."
Hubbard said she thought the program would be helpful for the University as it rigorously pursues a new relationship with the Commonwealth.
"Because the Act places particular emphasis on access and affordability to higher education, Access U.Va. will help us meet the requirements of the Act in those areas," she said.
Elizabeth Wallace, Director of Governmental Relations and Communications for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, declined to comment on whether Access U.Va. would enable the University to meet its affordability requirement, but praised the program nevertheless.
"It's a great idea," Wallace said. "It would be very difficult to argue it's not a good thing. It's a program very well received."
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