
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 13, 1994                   TAG: 9401130167
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FINANCIAL AID STUDY RELEASED

Black and other minority undergraduate students in Virginia are receiving 40 percent of all available financial aid, a rate slightly above their proportional need, according to a new study.

The study, released Tuesday by the State Council of Higher Education, was requested by the General Assembly last year. The lawmakers wanted to determine whether financial aid is being distributed fairly as more and more students compete for aid to counteract soaring college costs.

Of particular concern to lawmakers was the decline nationally in minority registration and graduation rates. In Virginia, however, minority student enrollments have risen substantially since 1980.

While rising costs do have a greater impact on lower- and middle-class families, the study found that Virginia's colleges are erring on the side of helping minority students.

For example, in 1991-92, black students made up 28 percent of students in need of financial aid and received 28 percent of the available aid. Other minority students, who represented 9 percent of those in need of aid, received 11 percent of the aid dollars.

White students, while representing 64 percent of needy students, received 60 percent of the aid dollars.

Overall in 1991-92, about one-fifth of the state's undergraduates - or 60,000 students - received financial help totaling more than $186 million. The vast majority of those funds were distributed on the basis of greatest financial need, the study found.

More than three-fourths of all state and federal aid dollars, excluding loans to parents, went to Virginia undergraduates from families earning less than $30,000 a year. And lower-income families received larger average grant awards than did students from wealthier families, the report said.

The General Assembly also questioned whether graduate students were siphoning off aid funds needed by undergraduates. But the study found that while colleges are allowed to use some of their financial aid for students working toward master's and doctoral degrees, the schools were not doing so at the expense of undergraduates.

by CNB