On Thursday, President Barack Obama released what he calls a better bargain for the middle class.
His plan to reduce financial hardships on students and families includes the creation and implementation of a university grading system and a system to hold students receiving aid accountable for making progress toward a degree.
“Our first priority is aimed at providing better value for students — making sure that families and taxpayers are getting what we pay for,” Obama said at his State University of New York Buffalo stop on a tour to announce the plan.
Victoria Stewart, a Ball State sophomore zoology major, said she believes it is any university’s job to ensure their students can graduate in the most timely manner possible.
Stewart transferred to Ball State this year because her previous school, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, would not allow her to take as many credit hours as she would have liked.
“I have to play catch up and take summer classes because [IUPUI] wouldn’t let me take more than 12 hours my first semester and were really against me taking any more the next,” she said.
Stewart said now that she is here, the university encourages her to take enough to graduate on time, and she believes any law that would encourage universities to graduate students in four years is a good thing.
Under Obama’s plan, there will be a new rating system for universities by 2015 to determine ability to graduate students or transfer them.
A student’s federal aid will then be affected by the rating of the university they chose to attend by 2018.
According to the fact sheet on the plan, students attending high-performing colleges could receive larger Pell Grants and more affordable student loans. Likewise, student’s progress toward a degree in four years will affect their aid.
Jared Sullivan, a freshman telecommunications major, said basing a student’s aid on personal progress makes sense.
“If you aren’t doing work, you shouldn’t get help,” he said, although he doesn’t expect the plan to make it to implementation.
“There is too much separation in the government with Republicans and Democrats for it to get through,” he said.
Kyle Kedra, a freshman meteorology major, said he thinks it will fundamentally change the way universities attempt to cater to students.
“[Universities] need to get better then,” he said. “Students are going to go to certain colleges [if they get more in aid], it just makes sense.”
