Berea College has been a groundbreaking institution since its founding in 1855, as the first college in the South to be co-educational and racially integrated.

In 1892, it stopped charging tuition.

Now it's breaking ground again, as the first college in the nation that will cover every cost that comes with being a student.

It's called the Financial Freedom Pledge.

Here to tell us about it is college president doctor Cheryl Nixon.

Doctor Nixon, thanks for coming in today.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure.

So this is a big deal.

Talk about how this goes beyond just covering tuition.

Yes.

We're thrilled that we're able to say we can take this next big leap and not just be covering tuition, but cover all the other expenses of college.

And that means housing and food.

I mean, think about it.

A student needs a place to live on campus.

And then also things like course fees and supplies.

Our whole idea is to take all that financial worry off the table so that students can feel like it's tuition, plus all of the extras of being a college student.

Yeah.

The big question is how are you able to do that?

So we're able to do that because we're building on that long history that you mentioned.

We've been tuition free since 1892, over 130 years.

When we did that, we became something that we call a work college.

Over time, that became a federal work college where we receive some federal funding because our every single student on campus has to work.

They have a job of ten hours a week.

That's their contribution.

So we take that as our foundation.

We take some federal funding, the work college model, that's how our students contribute.

And then we're really fortunate.

And then we add our own funding through donors foundations scholarship funding from Berea fills out the rest.

Yeah.

This is not a trial program.

This is not something you expect for the funds to run out on.

You help to go this route from here on out, right?

Yes we do.

We did a lot of stress testing, of course, to take a leap like this.

We were realizing we were already starting to fully fund many of our students.

So then when we looked at the numbers, we realized we could take that jump and fully fund all students.

We want to be able to say to students, if we admit you, we fully fund you students.

You bring your talents, your strengths, your curiosity, all that hard work, and we're going to fully fund you as you're bringing those gifts.

That's our gift in return.

And this starts in the fall of 2027.

It does.

There must be students now saying, oh, shucks, I just missed it.

I did.

We didn't think of that for this year.

The students that might be carrying a term bill and have to take out a student loan.

We're helping them with a special program on campus.

So we wanted to make sure it felt like the students are with us this year.

We're just saying, oh, wait a minute, that's next year.

But that's part of it is we don't want students to graduate with debt.

That's a very big concern in higher ed right now.

And we want our students to feel that sense of financial freedom that they can decide.

I want to explore.

I discover, maybe even make a mistake fail at college.

Not so worried about my loans, and then find the dream career.

Really follow their passions.

I know there has to be a cap on something like this.

Are you already?

Since the word got out, seen a increase in interest in enrolling in 2027?

Yes, and I think that's where part of the model is we are keeping our numbers stable.

We won't explode and move upwards.

In terms of student population, it's a very careful calculation.

Bria is small.

We're only about 1550 students.

So with that number, we can very carefully calculate the costs and we plan to keep it at that number.

You've also said this may open up choices for students that they didn't consider before, because they may have thought before about lab fees and, and books and different costs that come with different majors.

Now, they don't have to think about any of that.

That's exactly right.

We wanted the emphasis to be on students.

Come and experience that idea of college.

It's all about increasing your knowledge, your expertise.

Do things like in the summer, do an internship that again, we can cover the funding for that.

Take that risk and take that internship.

Don't worry about oh, I have to maybe work a summer job to pay that tuition bill and miss out on an opportunity like that.

That's the type of thinking we want students to really think of.

This is your chance to make that pathway to your future career.

That again, set you up for success forever.

So take those risks.

Use college for what it's intended for.

Yeah.

The first college in the nation to do this.

Or maybe others will try to follow your model.

I guess this has been a big splash of an announcement.

It has.

And I. I think we should be Kentucky proud.

I want to say, you know, Kentucky stands for innovation in education and really meeting the needs of the Commonwealth.

But the needs of our students.

We serve about 75% of our students come from Kentucky and Appalachia.

We specifically serve students who do have financial need, and we want it to be a college that says, we hear that, that college costs are a concern.

We want to serve Kentucky and Appalachia and say, come to us.

We'll remove those barriers so that you can stay here.

We return that same number of students to Kentucky and Appalachia.

We want them to be the engine of the economy for the future of this region.

There may be some people that have the perception that a free education is a subpar education, but you have rankings and evaluations that the spell that.

We do, we do.

We're really proud that with that promise comes academic rigor.

Again, students, we're giving you this sort of gift of a fully funded education.

You're bringing your gift of hard work and academic rigor that you want that challenge.

And then that pathway will be to being a nurse.

It could be to being a teacher.

You take those jobs that you want without having to worry about paying back loans.

And we want that to be challenging.

And we do.

We get great rankings.

We're the number one service college in the country.

Also, our students really believe in service and giving back.

And you feel confident that funding all of these things for students won't take away from your ability to pay staff, maintain buildings, and and do the other improvements you want to do on campus.

Correct.

That was the most important thing.

We need to be incredibly financially stable and we can only serve our students.

Always got great faculty and staff.

So we made sure that this model would not be impacting our ability to fund their salaries and again, to do things like fund our buildings on campus.

Because we say Berea College has often been groundbreaking and this is groundbreaking to the financial freedom Pledge.

Thanks for coming in to tell us about it.

Thank you so much.

We're thrilled.