20220917 smith 04.jpg Marshall President Brad D. Smith addresses the crowd after being sworn in as the 38th president of Marshall University on Friday.
20220917 smith 04.jpg Marshall President Brad D. Smith addresses the crowd after being sworn in as the 38th president of Marshall University on Friday.
Marshall University President Brad D. Smith says he wants to raise $300 million in the next 10 years so the school’s students can graduate debt-free. This is one of the best ideas to come out of Old Main in years.
“Marshall is a gateway institution. We welcome talented students who come from humble beginnings,” Smith said at his investiture ceremony on Sept. 16. “And we can’t send them out into the world when they leave Marshall with $26,000 in debt. We can and we must do more.”
University officials are working on details of Smith’s plan. For now, the plan is for Marshall to ask students to complete Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms each year, as they do now for financial aid, with families still being asked to cover the eligible family contribution portion of their tuition and fees.
Participating students will be asked to take a financial literacy course and to participate in a work-study program or paid internship.
“Once they’ve met those obligations, Marshall will lean in with every ounce of energy we have to help them get the federal, the state and the scholarship dollars necessary to cover all the remaining debt for their tuition, room, boards, fees and books,” Smith said.
So it’s not free college for everyone. Students and their families will need to do their parts, but Marshall is willing to go further to help them.
There are many side benefits of this plan. For one, it would have the side benefit of retaining students. Instead of dropping out as they see their debt obligation rising, students would have incentive to stay in school and complete their degrees.
Another is that it gives administrators more incentive to keep costs down. Judging from the rate of tuition increases at Marshall and other universities in the past decade, such incentives have been lacking. Marshall can’t help students graduate debt-free if its own costs continue increasing. Student debt has carried part of those costs. If Marshall bears more of that burden, it makes the school more responsible for keeping expenses down.
At his investiture ceremony, Smith said he has faith the Marshall University Foundation is up to the challenge of raising $300 million. The foundation recently completed its Marshall Rises campaign, raising $176 million.
“If they can do that in a handful of years, we can find $300 million over the next 10,” he said. “That emboldens us to believe we will find a way to make this vision a reality.”
The number of students graduating from high school in West Virginia in the coming decade is expected to decrease. To maintain enrollment, Marshall must make its degrees more valuable to graduates and it must be more affordable. Smith’s plan takes care of the second part. It’s a goal worth pursuing.
