BY CASSIDEY KAVATHAS, MANAGING EDITOR
St. Bonaventure University is asking the campus community to help advocate for student aid programs from New York State. Students, faculty, staff and parents can join the cause. Gov. Kathy Hochul included full funding for the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and proposed a 10% increase in funding for the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) in her proposed state budget. This is the first time in 22 years that HEOP has seen a proposed funding increase.
HEOP provides a broad range of services to New York State residents who, because of educational and economic circumstances, would otherwise be unable to attend a higher education institution. TAP helps eligible New York residents pay tuition at eligible New York State universities and colleges.
Chris Brown, executive director of the Student Success Center and Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program, stated how HEOP affects students directly.
“That money can be used towards student educational expenses, the cost of what it takes to be a student,” said Brown “So it can go towards tuition, room and board, the student fees, it can go to books and supplies, it can go toward like Tutoring and Academic Support, anything that would help a student in their like cost of attendance.”
The university is advocating to adjust the TAP income limit to $110,000 from $80,000 annually. On average, 407 Bonaventure students receive TAP annually. If the income limit is increased an additional 35 to 40 Bonaventure students would qualify.
The university is also advocating to increase HEOP funding by 20% which would be another 10% increase from the governor’s proposal. More than 70 Bonaventure students benefit from the HEOP program. The governor’s proposed increase could change the program as costs associated with it have continually raised while funding has remained stagnant. HEOP students also receive TAP in their student aid packages.
“So with the governor’s 10% proposal that would be fantastic. If it went up, it would be even better.” said Brown “Any sort of increase to TAP or HEOP aid would directly affect Bonaventure and Bonaventure students because of the cost of tuition and the student portion of what they pay.”
The University wants the campus community to also advocate for an increase in Bundy Aid or Direct Institutional Aid funding to $60 million. This aid helps make college more affordable by funding scholarships and programs that support students at independent colleges and universities such as Bonaventure.
“Bundy aid is the only unrestricted state funding that private independent colleges get, everything else is restricted,” said Tom Buttafarro, director of government and community relations “It has to go towards students and it’s based off of graduation rates. The money goes directly into the pool that we use to support our institutional base financial aid to students.”
Anyone in the campus community including parents can advocate to state legislators about these programs. The university works with the Commission on Independent College and Universities in New York or CICU to help organize a way to advocate. People can go to https://newyorkstudentaidalliance.org and advocate in three different ways. They can write to legislators through an already formatted email, share a video story or share a written testimonial about why student aid programs matter to you and how student aid has impacted your college career.
“Part of our understanding of Franciscan values is how do we stand on the side of or how do we advocate for people who have been marginalized. There’s a lot of Francis stories that we can see standing on the side of people who have been marginalized?” said Brown “When we’re looking at HEOP, specifically we’re looking at a program that is built to provide access to college, for students who are academically and financially disadvantaged. If we took it in the language of Francis,how do we stand on the side of those who have been marginalized in our educational system?”
Tom Buttafarro, director of government and community relations will be hosting a student advocacy day on campus for HEOP and TAP receiving students on Friday, Feb. 25. George Burello, Republican state senator, and Joseph Giglio, Republican state assemblyman will be on campus to hear from students. People interested in participating should contact Buttafarro through email at tbuttafa@sbu.edu.
“Just because the Student Alliance Day (Feb. 1) is over doesn’t mean that students, faculty, staff and parents shouldn’t be continuing to send emails or videos,” said Brown “Let’s get the message out and keep the pressure on.”
kavathcj20@bonaventure.edu
