Spring Break
Aggie Assurance flawed
Controversy around new program is rife with misconceptions, mistakes.
By: Kaitlyn Drinkwater
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Opinion
The Aggie Assurance program provides free tuition to any Aggie, beginning with the Class of 2012, whose annual family income is less than $60,000. The program has been a source of controversy on campus. Some hail its coming as others fear and loathe it. There are potential problems with the program and rather glaring fallacies in the arguments both for and against it.
The most obvious thing that gets students riled up is the idea that someone else is getting free money they don't "deserve." The only reason someone should be awarded a scholarship is for academic achievement, with monetary needs being a moderating factor in just how much money is given. Unfortunately, the Aggie Assurance scholarship will be solely need-based. However, it is maintained through grades. Aggie Assurance recipients have to maintain a 2.5 GPR to keep the money. Of course, they also have to get admitted to Texas A&M in the first place, which is proof of some academic ability; not everyone can do that.
There are faulty ideas on the other side of the coin. Supporters of the plan seem to believe every student who comes from a family making under $60,000 per househould will have a Lifetime Movie-worthy hard luck story and during time on campus, will maintain a 4.0, dedicate weekends to charity and singlehandedly lead movements of diversity and tolerance.
The fact is, there are lazy, greedy people and really exceptional people in every social class. High-, middle- or low-income makes little difference. The blind paraplegic student whose father died rescuing a school bus full or preschoolers and puppies, and whose mother devotes all her resources to the less-fortunate, is going to be the exception, not the rule. Most Aggie Assurance scholars will be regular people without touching stories of triumph and tragedy
The program itself is experimental, whether Murano & Co. want to admit it or not. The hope is that the program will be self-regulating: those who really didn't deserve the help will fall below on their GPR and be weeded out after a semester or two. With tuition at $2,500 per semester, per student, it's an expensive way to sort the wheat from the chaff. If the program doesn't work as hoped, we'll see it within a few years as millions of dollars disappear into a bottomless pit of freshmen who never make it to graduation.
I think the program is a decent idea. It's just a new incarnation of using money to bring bright students to A&M. However, I think the money should be awarded on the basis of academics to students who happen to fall in the less-than-$60,000 bracket - not on the basis of students of the same socioeconomic status who we hope can keep it together academically. It's important that standards for receiving the money, like minimum SAT or ACT scores, are higher than those required by A&M of all incoming freshmen.
Supposedly, this program is meant to allow promising freshmen who would not otherwise be able to receive a great education an opportunity to do so and ultimately become assets to the University. If that's the plan, we need to make sure we are really bringing the best and brightest.
The most obvious thing that gets students riled up is the idea that someone else is getting free money they don't "deserve." The only reason someone should be awarded a scholarship is for academic achievement, with monetary needs being a moderating factor in just how much money is given. Unfortunately, the Aggie Assurance scholarship will be solely need-based. However, it is maintained through grades. Aggie Assurance recipients have to maintain a 2.5 GPR to keep the money. Of course, they also have to get admitted to Texas A&M in the first place, which is proof of some academic ability; not everyone can do that.
There are faulty ideas on the other side of the coin. Supporters of the plan seem to believe every student who comes from a family making under $60,000 per househould will have a Lifetime Movie-worthy hard luck story and during time on campus, will maintain a 4.0, dedicate weekends to charity and singlehandedly lead movements of diversity and tolerance.
The fact is, there are lazy, greedy people and really exceptional people in every social class. High-, middle- or low-income makes little difference. The blind paraplegic student whose father died rescuing a school bus full or preschoolers and puppies, and whose mother devotes all her resources to the less-fortunate, is going to be the exception, not the rule. Most Aggie Assurance scholars will be regular people without touching stories of triumph and tragedy
The program itself is experimental, whether Murano & Co. want to admit it or not. The hope is that the program will be self-regulating: those who really didn't deserve the help will fall below on their GPR and be weeded out after a semester or two. With tuition at $2,500 per semester, per student, it's an expensive way to sort the wheat from the chaff. If the program doesn't work as hoped, we'll see it within a few years as millions of dollars disappear into a bottomless pit of freshmen who never make it to graduation.
I think the program is a decent idea. It's just a new incarnation of using money to bring bright students to A&M. However, I think the money should be awarded on the basis of academics to students who happen to fall in the less-than-$60,000 bracket - not on the basis of students of the same socioeconomic status who we hope can keep it together academically. It's important that standards for receiving the money, like minimum SAT or ACT scores, are higher than those required by A&M of all incoming freshmen.
Supposedly, this program is meant to allow promising freshmen who would not otherwise be able to receive a great education an opportunity to do so and ultimately become assets to the University. If that's the plan, we need to make sure we are really bringing the best and brightest.
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