Need-based aid requests level off for 2011-12 school year

Several departments on campus have fallen victim to years of budget cuts, but the University’s ability to provide financial aid has remained relatively unscathed.

After several years of aid requests increasing by the thousands, the office received only 151 more applications this year, said Shirley Ort, associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid, in a presentation to the Board of Trustees on Thursday.

“After the fallout in 2008, we saw almost a 15 to 17 percent surge in need-based applications,” Ort said, adding that the number of financial aid applications has finally leveled out.

The office used funds it had reserved from previous years to cover losses sustained from cuts in state funding, Ort said.

“We aren’t in such a stable position going forward, but we held on this year,” Ort said.

Last year, the office distributed $148.4 million in aid to more than 8,200 undergraduate students.

On average, 66 percent of a student’s demonstrated need is met through grants and scholarships, Ort said. The rest of the financial aid package is rounded out with loan offers, she added.

Ort said the average debt for graduating seniors who borrowed money last year was about $16,000.

She said only graduates of the University of Florida and University of California-Berkeley among the University’s peer institutions incurred lower debt.

Despite steep budget cuts this year, the University enrolled the largest group of Carolina Covenant students ever this fall.

The program, which welcomed 581 new participants this year, allows high-achieving students from low-income families to graduate debt free through work-study, scholarships and grants.

Steve Farmer, associate provost and director of undergraduate admissions, said the University was able to start a grant-funded summer fellowship program to attract top-tier students this year.

But Farmer said those sorts of merit-based programs can only continue if they are supported by long-term funding.

“It’s not consistent with our values to fund merit at the expense of need,” Farmer said.

Ort said some have suggested that universities consider a student’s ability to pay tuition during the admissions process.

“It’s certainly in the public discourse and is certainly something that concerns me,” Ort said.

Farmer said he would hate to see the University redefine itself along those lines.

“We remain the people’s University,” Farmer said.

And Chancellor Holden Thorp agreed.

“Students and families are a last resort for us in terms of funding,” Thorp said.

Contact the University Editor at university@dailytarheel.com.