August 31, 2011 12:17 pm
Urgo Asks Governor for Additional Grant to Aid Affordability
By Dave Chase, Former Managing Editor
President Joseph Urgo and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Molly Mahoney Matthews, are asking Governor O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly for an additional $5 million a year to improve affordability and increase access to St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
The College receives a block grant each year from the State of Maryland, currently in the amount of $17.5 million dollars. According to Vice President of Business and Finance, Tom Botzman, the block grant began as a deal with the state for a steady funding stream. Though the College tried to get the block grant tied to the cost of higher education, the original legislation tied the grant only to the rate of inflation.
“No one could have predicted what would happen to the cost of higher education,” said Urgo. According to the National Center for Education Statistics website, the cost of college nearly doubled in the last 15 years. “If our block grant was tied to the cost of higher education, we would be fine. [The additional $5 million] is really an adjustment to make up for the rising cost of high education,” said Urgo.
Conversations about the College’s proposed increase began during the last spring when Urgo testified in a legislative session before the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate Budget Committees: “The main issue I discussed with legislators was affordability.” Urgo told legislators, “there is a small percentage of people who want to do [liberal arts] work and when we lose one we lose a potential leader. We need those leaders.”
Following Urgo’s testimony, “the Budget Committee Chairs asked, ‘what can we do?’ Which is really a testimony to [Urgo's] leadership. He made this a keynote issue,” according to Botzman.
The College’s response came in the form of a 20 page report due out on Sept. 1, pending the approval of the Governor’s office. A spokeswoman for the Governor said the report is currently being reviewed and could not comment on the Governor’s reaction or intentions until later in the budget process.
For the proposed increase to move forward, O’Malley must include the additional money in the budget he submits to the General Assembly in January.
Urgo and Matthews scheduled a meeting with O’Malley for Tuesday, Aug. 30 to discuss the report and increased funding. According to the Governor’s Office, O’Malley rescheduled the meeting to tour St. Mary’s County inspecting damage from Hurricane Irene.
The proposal is still in the early stages, according to Botzman, and it is too soon to tell if the proposal will be warmly received by the Governor and General Assembly. “We will know more after the special legislative session [on redistricting] in October,” said Botzman.
If the College receives the $5 million increase, the total block grant will increase to $23.5 million for next fiscal year. According to Urgo, the College would spend $2 million on reducing tuition, $2 million on increasing financial aid and $1 million on expanding the DeSousa Brent Scholarship to a four year program.
“We have one of the highest graduation rates in the state and one of the highest graduation rates for non-majority students,” said Urgo. He added St. Mary’s also has a nearly equal graduation rate between majority and non-majority students, a struggle for most colleges and universities. “The college is a success story for the state. Twenty years after the original deal, we are asking the state to recommit to the College.”
Urgo added that the University of Maryland system, of which St. Mary’s is not a part despite being a state-funded college, received money from the state in the last few years to help keep tuition low. St. Mary’s did not receive that money. “We are asking for the money we did not get,” said Urgo. With the additional money, Botzman said St. Mary’s could roll back the tuition increases from the last few years, bringing St. Mary’s tuition more inline with the University of Maryland system.
If the College does not receive the $5 million increase, Urgo said rolling back tuition increases would be difficult. Without the increase, the College will rely primarily on private fundraising to keep tuition from increasing.
The College is in the initial stage of a long-term fundraising effort to increase revenue to the College’s scholarship funds. The Office of Advancement is currently assessing the current donor base’s capacity, according to Urgo. Once assessed, Advancement will spend several years “quietly” soliciting donations before going public around 2015 with the fundraising campaign.
“The increased grant is really aimed at making St. Mary’s more affordable for all Maryland residents, strengthening the way we support students and improving the necessary supports all students need to succeed,” said Botzman.
The report from the College of the Governor and Budget Committee Report Chairs was not released in time for publication; visit thepointnews.com for the latest information.
Unless they’ve changed things in the last few months, DeSousa-Brent is a Scholars Program, not a scholarship. Last I checked, DB Scholars don’t receive any financial support from being in the program. I’m really hoping the grant goes through, though. Expanding DB to a four-year program would be a huge step in the right direction for St. Mary’s.
“bringing St. Mary’s tuition more inline with the University of Maryland system”
Unless the equation is more complex than I appreciate, this seems an exaggeration. SMCM in-state tuition & fees is $14,445. College Park tuition & fees is $8,665 — a difference of $5780. $2 million applied to tuition for about 2000 students would come out to around $1000 each, thus closing the gap by about 17%. A help, certainly, but hardly “in line” with the U of M system.
Also, FWIW, according to the 2010 IPEDS report, total 09/10 grant & scholarship disbursements were about $9.6 million, averaging $7,062 for 1367 students. Adding $3 million to this pot would increase the budget by about 31% and the average award by at most $2,195 (assuming no change in the number of awards).
Here’s an idea: How about the Prez and Trustees ask OweMalley for money so the college staff workers can get a pay raise this year? And I’m not talking about teachers and Profs! Maybe The Point should do a little investigating to find out just how long its been since the workers at SMCM have received a pay raise and yet, why SMCM has seen the need to raise tuition to the 4th highest in the U.S. Where is all the money going? Certainly not to those who provide support to the college 24/7!
Though I think it’s certainly a problem that the college staff (and faculty) haven’t seen any pay raises in years, it’s a bit much to suggest that tuition is being raised unscrupulously. We know where the money is going because there have been presentations on that open to students, faculty and staff several times throughout the past year.