Federation of Illinois Independent Colleges and Universities

Presidents push Quinn to restore MAP (DeKalb Chronicle)

Released: 9/8/2009

Peters to Quinn: Restore funding to grant program
By KATE SCHOTT – kschott@daily-chronicle.com
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Northern Illinois University President John Peters said he is determined to do what he can to help financially struggling students make ends meet this academic year.

It’s one of the reasons he, along with other higher education officials, visited Gov. Pat Quinn earlier this week to ask him to restore funding to the Monetary Award Program, a grant that provides financial assistance for the state’s neediest students.

The state is providing $220 million for grants and scholarships this academic year, half of what was initially proposed. Between $194 million to $198 million of that will be used for MAP grants during the fall semester, Paul Palian, director of communications for the Illinois Student Assistance Committee, told the Daily Chronicle last week.

An estimated 137,000-138,000 students will receive the financial need-based MAP grant this year, Palian said, down from 145,000 last year. The maximum MAP grant is $4,968 a year, with the average grant about $2,500. NIU is set to lose about $11 million in MAP funding this spring. About 30 percent of NIU’s 18,000 undergraduate students receive MAP grants.

Peters visited Quinn on Wednesday as a representative of the state’s public four-year universities. Also attending was John Erwin, president of Illinois Central College in Peoria, representing the Illinois Council of Community College Presidents; and Fr. Michael Garanzini, president of Loyola University Chicago and Charles Middleton, president of Roosevelt University, representing the Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities.

Peters said it is rare that an issue will align public and private higher education officials. But all share a concern for what Peters called the “looming crisis” of the elimination of funding for MAP grants.

An estimated one-third of students statewide receiving the grant will not be able to attend school in the spring, Peters said.

Quinn received the group well and understands what the loss of funding means, Peters said, and education officials know the state is under tight budgetary restraints.

But he encouraged students and parents to contact lawmakers to implore them to restore the funding. And to do so within the next month: Students make decisions about spring semester in October and November, he said.

“The dire consequences of this is that we would lose a whole class or two of these students, the most needy students, who need this degree to have a good life, to get a good job, to own a home, to raise a family, to pay taxes, to contribute to their communities,” he said. “This action has profound consequences.”