How this Kentucky college offers education without financial burden

Amna Nawaz:

We have brought you stories over the past several weeks on how schools are adapting to changing admissions policies.

Tonight, we focus on a college that's thinking differently about who's admitted and their family income level.

Special correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reports on a school in Berea, Kentucky, where tuition is free. It is for our series Rethinking College.

Hari Sreenivasan:

These students are weaving, woodworking, and making brooms. It is part of Berea College's labor program, something every student must participate in.

Alex Netherton, College Student:

So, we're — expected to be part of our labor program is working 10 hours a week.

Hari Sreenivasan:

The crafts are sold in local stores and online. Each student works throughout their four years at the college.

Brittany Ash, Association Dean of Labor, Berea College: Every office on campus, every department on campus has student employment there.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Brittany Ash and Collis Robinson run the labor program.

Collis Robinson, Dean of Student Labor, Berea College: It's the work, it's the learning, and it's the service, and it's when you combine those things together we get the unique program that we have at Berea.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Students receive a small salary, which typically goes toward room and board, no fancy dorms here.

So how's your football team do?

(Laughter)

Cheryl Nixon, President, Berea College:

We don't have a football team.

Hari Sreenivasan:

How about the stadium for your basketball players?

Cheryl Nixon:

We don't have a stadium.

(Laughter)

Hari Sreenivasan:

That's president Cheryl Nixon.

What they do have is free laptops for every incoming student and medical and dental care on campus, after a small initial fee and, most importantly, free tuition.

Cheryl Nixon says, while Berea is unique, it should not be.

Cheryl Nixon:

I think that more innovative, creative thinking is what higher ed needs right now, when people are really questioning, what's the return on investment in higher ed?

And I think, again, Berea, just because of a very innovative founding vision, we have been working on this model for over 165 years and have come up with pieces that come together that allow us to say we can take students that can't afford college and we can fund it for them.

Hari Sreenivasan:

The roots of free tuition and the labor program go back to Berea's inception. An abolitionist minister founded it in 1855 to give all people in the Appalachian area opportunities, to educate male and female students, black and white, all together.

Cheryl Nixon:

We are very lucky that we have a very I would call it a courageous, brave history behind us. Pre-Civil War, when Kentucky was still a slave-owning state, that emerged and was successful and also said we need to serve students in the region.

Hari Sreenivasan:

But, in 1904, the school's integration was outlawed.

Cheryl Nixon:

We fought that battle all the way to the Supreme Court, and we lost. We had to remain segregated.

Fortunately, when we — when Brown v. Board of Education was won, we were able to reintegrate and then become what we are today, which is an integrated institution, like much of higher ed.

Hari Sreenivasan:

But higher ed costs money. Berea is able to offer an education without burdening students or their families with the costs.

Cheryl Nixon:

Our no tuition promise became our promise that you will have a four-year job on campus, receive an income that will then — you can then use that to help defray your costs, so our students can graduate debt-free.

Hari Sreenivasan:

What percentage of your students today are eligible for Pell Grants?

Cheryl Nixon:

It's around 95 percent.

Hari Sreenivasan:

In fact, Berea topped the list of the recent New York Times College-Access Index, with the highest number of students receiving Pell Grants, which are federal grants earmarked for lower-income students.

Is there a financial criteria of — before you even apply to say you might be too rich to apply here?

Luke Hodson, Associate Vice President of Admissions, Berea College: Absolutely.

And we turn students away every year because their family's financial picture is greater than what we would consider eligible to attend Berea.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Luke Hodson is the associate vice president of admissions and a 2002 graduate.

Luke Hodson:

We see students every year who fall into our applicant pool, and we introduce the financial eligibility requirement. They become highly disappointed, because they saw this as a great opportunity and great things to pursue. But, financially, we're not even going to be able to consider their application.

Hari Sreenivasan:

But while an applicant's family income may be low, the students grade-point average may not.

Luke Hodson:

From a financial standpoint, the average income of our student body is $32,000 a year. From an academic standpoint, most of our students, on average, will have around a 3.5 high school GPA.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Hodson says they look for a candidates grit.

Luke Hodson:

So, grit is oftentimes a lot of these kind of academic readiness, the core about that student's ability to be successful in a rigorous academic setting that Berea offers.

Hari Sreenivasan:

What kind of degrees do you offer?

Luke Hodson:

When you think of a small private institution like Berea categorized as a liberal arts institution, you make the assumptions, well, they are not going to offer professional degrees like in nursing or business or computer science, but we do.

But on the flip of that, you have got your traditional liberal arts, your languages.

Hari Sreenivasan:

It also offers classes based on the region, like this one on health in Appalachia, today's lesson, cancer in the area.

Woman:

So, I will give you guys — set a timer for five minutes. Talk to your group members.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Tennessee native Patience Martin just graduated from Berea and fulfilled her dream of going overseas.

Patience Martin (Berea College Graduate):

I studied abroad in Costa Rica in the summer of 2022.

Hari Sreenivasan:

She is the first person to graduate high school in her family, and her horizons are wider now.

Patience Martin:

I'm interested in public policy analysis.

Hari Sreenivasan:

If shed had to pay tuition, she says, grad school would have been unlikely.

Patience Martin:

I'm not sure what that would have looked like. It would have been loans on top of loans.

Hari Sreenivasan:

A critical component of Berea's model is giving back to the area. Although students do come from all over, 67 percent of students are from Appalachia.

Collis Robinson:

We have students working out in the community with some of the local schools. We have students working in nursing homes. The service piece is about serving the greater community, something bigger than you, if you will.

Hari Sreenivasan:

But while there might be an emphasis on Berea honoring its ties to the region, Cheryl Nixon thinks the school can be an example for others around the country.

Cheryl Nixon:

I think that, if higher ed could, again, be a bit courageous, a bit brave, it could take pieces of this model and replicate it, again, looking at how it spends its endowment and putting more of that towards student care and student support.

Hari Sreenivasan:

Support that helps students get an education in music, the arts, or the sciences, all without going into debt.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I am Hari Sreenivasan in Berea, Kentucky.