Cal Grant cuts could hit Santa Clara students

By Matthew Meyerhofer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget for the next fiscal year in California contains spending cuts to Cal Grants that could reduce aid to Santa Clara students by about $700,000 for the 2004-2005 academic school year, according to estimates provided by the Office of Financial Aid.

In four years, when the budget cuts will have taken their full effect, this reduction could grow to an estimated $3 million.

Assistant Vice Provost of Enrollment Management Richard Toomey said while Santa Clara will do what it can if the proposed budget passes, full compensation for the reductions is not possible.

"We don't have an extra $3 million sitting around to make up differences," Toomey said. "We'll make up as much as we can, but we're not in a position to guarantee that if they lose a dollar of Cal Grant funding, they're going to pick up a dollar of Santa Clara funding. That's not going to happen."

The budget cuts proposed by Schwarzenegger reduce the maximum award from $9,708 to $5,482 - a 44 percent decrease - and lowers the family income criterion by 10 percent, making fewer middle class students eligible to receive Cal Grants. According to the Office of Financial Aid, these reductions would affect 195 new students, making 45 of them ineligible to receive a Cal Grant.

"The bottom line probably is even though we will make the best efforts to try to improve the quality of our aid package, it probably means students are going to have to look more at the loans and employment than they already are," James Briggs, executive assistant to Santa Clara President Paul Locatelli, S.J., said.

Toomey echoed this forecast.

"What it's going to mean is that students are going to have to borrow more money, and students are going to have to work longer hours to make up the difference," he said.

Currently, 588 Santa Clara undergraduates, representing 13 percent of the undergraduate student body, receive Cal Grants. Current students already receiving Cal Grant funding will not be affected, which is why it will take four years for the cuts to take full effect.

The reduction of the highest grant from $9,708 to $5,482 means that a full Cal Grant award will drop from covering about 38 percent of Santa Clara's tuition to about 20 percent.

"The hope is that it doesn't happen, or that if it does happen, it's not as severe," Toomey said. "But the state is facing a financial crisis and there have to be changes. Everybody knows this."

According to Toomey, the proposed cuts occur at a time when high school graduation numbers are the highest they have been in twenty years.

"It's particularly unfortunate that they are proposing cuts of this magnitude when it happens to coincide with, over the next two or three years, a real spike of people graduating from high school," he said.

Santa Clara is encouraging those students that do receive financial aid in the form of Cal Grants to contact their state legislature representatives and tell them how important the grants are.

"We're asking Cal Grant recipients to contact their legislator and let them know how important the Cal Grant was in their decision to go to school. It has a huge effect," Toomey said. "Hearing from people who receive the grants is the most persuasive argument for keeping a well-balanced Cal Grant program."

Santa Clara has also been pursuing what options it has in the political arena, talking to state legislators about the importance of the Cal Grants.

"[Locatelli] has met directly with state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose] who has very much expressed an interest in this issue and also thinks it's shortsighted not to support education in the most vigorous way," Toomey said. "He has also gone to Sacramento with a group of other concerned college officials and met with representatives from the governor's office."

Santa Clara is a member of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, a Sacramento-based organization of 76 private colleges and universities, which lobbies on behalf of its members in the state capitol.

"There's also going to be a day in Sacramento coming up at the end of the month where we hope to identify a couple of Santa Clara students who are Cal Grant recipients who would be willing to go to Sacramento and talk to legislators, and just be seen and be heard," Toomey said. "A lot of schools are doing that."

û Contact Matthew Meyerhofer at (408) 554-4546 or mmeyerhofer@scu.edu.