ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PHILIP WALZER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
The proposal worries others, who say students need leeway as they adjust to college.
One in six students getting state financial aid at Virginia's public institutions isn't maintaining a C average. The chairwoman of the State Council of Higher Education says it's time to purge many of those low achievers from the financial aid rolls.
``What I'm advocating is the best use of very limited funds,'' said the chairwoman, Elizabeth McClanahan, an attorney from Abingdon. ``We should be reallocating those dollars to students who are serious about graduation and who are serious about achieving.''
Most colleges, she said, give students two to three semesters from the time they first get in academic trouble before kicking them off financial aid. So a student who gets, say, a D average in his first semester might have until the end of his sophomore year to raise it to an overall C before losing eligibility for aid.
As a result, $8.3 million - or 17 percent - of the $49.3 million that Virginia allotted for financial aid at public colleges last year went to students who weren't sustaining a C average.
``I think taxpayers would be outraged'' to know the figures, McClanahan said. ``I believe that the standards should be far more stringent than that.''
The state council does not have the legal authority to institute across-the-board requirements on eligibility for state financial aid. Those decisions rest with each college.
But McClanahan is advocating guidelines, which have yet to be drawn. Because the council's voice carries weight in Richmond, the universities could face public and political pressure to conform to such a policy.
McClanahan first raised the issue at the agency's monthly meeting at Longwood College, in Farmville, earlier this month. She said more recently that she expected the council to discuss the matter further, and perhaps consider a proposed policy, at its next meeting, in April.
What exactly it will say remains unclear. McClanahan said she wasn't sure whether she would advocate taking a below-C student off financial aid immediately - or allowing the student a semester or two to boost the average. But in any case, she said, the guidelines will be more stringent than the policies of most Virginia colleges.
McClanahan heads an ideologically conservative majority on the council, so the proposal is likely to get a sympathetic hearing from her fellow members. But it is already raising concern from college officials and from the agency's longtime director.
``I think it would be detrimental to some degree because the student needs that first year to make that transition coming to college,'' said Estherine Harding, the financial aid director at Norfolk State University. ``In many instances, they are living away from their parents for the first time, in a less structured environment. After that first year, they get acclimated and understand they need to work hard to make good grades....
``I just believe students should be given the opportunity.''
Norfolk State University, she said, recently strengthened its eligibility requirements for aid: Students must maintain a 1.5 average - halfway between a C and a D - while freshmen, but they must raise that to a C by the end of the sophomore year to stay on aid.
Gordon Davies, the director of the state council, also believes in allowing students some leeway before denying them financial aid: ``I personally think we need to be enormously tolerant of people's having difficulties when they start, as long as they meet the standard by the time they finish. I don't think we're wasting money if we give them a chance to try.''
On the other hand, schools like Virginia Tech are making their own efforts to keep students' grades from slipping below a C. Tech's new policy puts into place a whole range of help -from study skills to tutoring - for students whose grades drop.
The motivation was simple: "getting students to graduate," said Susan Brooker-Gross, an associate provost. The complex policy does cut first-term freshmen a break - they have three semesters to boost their grades -"but they won't be left on their own to do it."
About 1,800 students on financial aid could be affected by the new policy, Tech officials said.
The state proposal isn't expected to affect eligibility for federal aid. Federal rules require that recipients progress toward a C average by the time of graduation, but leave the details to the schools, Davies said.
The issue came to the fore at the state council with the recent release of a study pinpointing the grade-point averages of recipients of state financial aid.
The report showed that 17 percent of aid recipients at state-supported four-year colleges - and 19 percent at community colleges - last year had averages below a 2.0, or a C.
Among four-year schools, Virginia State University and Virginia Military Institute had the largest proportion of aid recipients with less than a C - 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively. The College of William and Mary and James Madison University had the least, at 5 percent each.
But VMI's lower academic scores are a well-known result of a program wherein students' regimen involves much more than studies, an official there said.
"Obviously, it's not your typical freshman year in college," spokesman Mike Strickler said of VMI's freshman "rat" year, where first-year students are subjected to lots of rules, discipline, and activities.
To return for the sophomore year, a student must have a 1.5 average, and, to stay off academic probation, must have a 1.8 grade-point average. By junior year, a 2.0 is required to stay off probation.
The discussion about financial aid comes after the General Assembly recently rebuffed the state council's request for more aid money. The agency argued that only 35 percent of the financial need of Virginia students is being met. Legislators, however, thought there was no urgency to spend more on aid while the colleges are under a tuition freeze, which lasts through next year.
``We think the state should be meeting 50 percent of the need,'' McClanahan said. ``Since we're not able to do that, I believe those dollars should be given to those students who prove themselves to be serious about studying.''
Davies, the state council's director, said the statistics show that students sometimes need time to get in gear: While 28 percent of freshmen on state aid don't have a C average, the proportion gradually falls until the senior year, when it is 8 percent.
``What's most significant to me is that most of the students who have difficulty have it in the first year,'' he said. ``It just goes down as time goes on. ... By the time they get to be seniors, of course, you expect them to have a 2.0 average, and substantially over 90 percent do.''
David Breneman, a researcher on college finances who is dean of the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, raised the fear that a tighter policy might encourage grade inflation. ``It puts pressure on a professor to make sure people get better grades,'' he said, ``because no professor wants to cause someone to lose a scholarship.''
Staff writer Allison Blake contributed to this story.
Want to be heard on the subject? Write the State Council of Higher Education, 101 N. 14th St., Richmond 23219.
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) McClanahan. color. Graphic: Chart by staff:by CNBWho's getting financial aid? color. KEYWORDS: MGR