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The city of Chicago and University of Chicago
announced
measures to attract more low- and middle-income students and ease their path to higher education.
The University of Chicago will simplify the application process and emphasize financial aid in admissions presentations in an effort to draw more low-income students to apply.
The university will cut back the expectation that low- and middle-income students will take jobs during the school year. It will also provide career counseling during these students’ first year and guarantee paid internships after that year.
The program will help approximately 3,000 students—half of University of Chicago’s students—by the time it takes full effect over the course of five years, Robert Zimmer, University of Chicago president, said.
On the same day, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan that will provide community college tuition for all Chicago public high school students whose GPA exceeds 3.0 and are equipped for college-level math and English. Several other areas in the country such as Tulsa, OK, and the state of Tennessee, also provide free tuition at community college to encourage greater numbers of college grads.
“The big factor in determining whether people complete school [or] drop out of the school is cost,” Emanuel said.
The City Colleges of Chicago have streamlined investments recently, saving funds that will help support the costs of this program, according to City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman.
Schools must make greater efforts to attract students from low-income backgrounds, Zimmer said.
“The reason we undertook this program in the first place was our belief in the importance of education and the power of that education to transform lives and to change the trajectory of families,” he said.
Warm up questions
- What is the purpose of higher education? At the end of it, what do you think graduates should be able to do?
- What is tuition? What does it pay for? How much do you think a four year college costs per year?
Critical thinking questions
- How effective do you think the University of Chicago’s plan will be to attract and keep students in college? What parts do you think will be particularly effective and why? Do you foresee any challenges that might arise with this plan?
- How effective do you think the mayor of Chicago’s plan to pay for community college tuition for students with at least 3.0 GPA and are equipped for college level math and English will be in getting low-and middle-income students into higher education? Would it make you work harder in school? Who might be left out of this plan?
- How do you know if you are ready for college-level math and English? What do you think would be the most accurate way for someone to measure that? Now imagine you have thousands of students you have to assess, would your answer have to change?
