Financial aid is used to pay the bulk of UW-Madison sophomore Allison Hyde's tuition. She receives about $9,000 in financial aid each semester, $700 of which comes from a federal Pell Grant. Hyde said the Pell Grant, which doesn't have to be paid back after graduation, makes it a lot easier for her to afford college.
\If I didn't have it it would be pretty hard,"" she said.
Twenty years ago, Hyde and the other 3,341 UW-Madison undergraduates who received Pell Grants for the 2001-2002 school year would have received a lot more grant funding. According to several analysts, back then the average student's financial aid package broke down into about 70 percent grants and 30 percent loans. Today the opposite is true.
As students face larger loans and the possibility of more tuition increases due to the state's projected budget deficit, more people advocate financial aid increases to help students offset costs.
Last week, U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, proposed doubling the maximum federal Pell Grant award by 2010. Currently, the maximum award is $3,700 per school year.
Feingold's announcement met the approval of several student advocacy groups, including the United Council of UW Students.
United Council lobbies legislators to continue linking financial aid increases to tuition increases, an achievement they made last year in Wisconsin's Budget Adjustment Bill, said Stephanie Hilton, academic affairs director for the United Council.
Hilton said financial aid does not stretch as far as it used to, which hurts students' because aid helps them not only to go to class but also to hold jobs and participate in extracurricular activities that build their resumes.
""Financial aid provides access to more than just sitting in a classroom,"" she said.
The shift toward grants has been joined by two other trends, according to Steve Van Ess, director of financial services at UW-Madison. Van Ess said the federal government has recently focused more on tax credits and merit-based awards. Unlike Pell Grants, which are awarded solely on financial need, these options do not help the neediest students who do not pay taxes or who have worse academic records due to the hardship of low socioeconomic status, Van Ess said.
Even though many people support increased Pell Grant funding, according to Van Ess, the program still faces opposition because of the rough economy.
""People say even if it's a good idea, where are we going to get all that money, especially in these tough budget times?"" he said.
