President Bush's proposed budget for 2007 would make significant cuts to financial aid programs, putting an additional burden on colleges and universities to provide affordable education, said Director of Financial Services Yvonne Hubbard.
The president's cuts to financial aid programs consists of shifting federal funding from grants to loans, which has been the general trend with the federal government for about 20 years, Admissions Dean John Blackburn said.
In this new budget the president has proposed eliminating the Perkins loan, which provides students with low-interest repayment and forgiveness options.
The government doesn't always decrease spending on financial aid, but the increases never come in the forms of grants, whereas in the past Pell grants made up a significant portion of a student's financial package, Blackburn added.
According to Blackburn, the proposed decrease in federal grant support will not hinder the University's ability to provide financial resources to its students.
Hubbard added that the Pell grant and Supplemental Educational Opportunity grant have both remained unchanged for about four years, which means that as educational costs increase these grants cover less of the burden.
The larger issue facing the country is that balancing the federal budget and providing affordable higher education are goals that stand in contrast with one another, she said.
"The issue is that the president is trying to balance the budget, and we have a continued concern about providing affordable education," but cutting funding hurts a university's ability to lower its costs, Hubbard added.
President John T. Casteen, III and the current Board of Visitors have made accessibility and affordability principle goals for the University and have pledged to meet the needs of the students, she said.
The University is in the position to provide for the full demonstrated need of each student through the AccessUVa program and has committed to doing so no matter how much the federal government cuts from financial aid support, Blackburn said.
The cuts will not hurt students who are applying for financial aid this year, even though the University would have less federal support, he said.
As a result the University may have to economize in other areas or increase fundraising, he added.
There are very few public universities with the ability to provide the quantity of financial aid that the University does and considering the University's ability to fundraise, students have little to worry about, Blackburn claimed.
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