4 - The Michigan Daily - Orientation Edition 2005 'U' creates new M-PACT financial aid package March 07, 2005 By Farayha Arrine and Anne Joling Daily Staff Reporters A new need-based grant program for in- state undergraduates will become available this fall to replace some loans with grant money in the financial aid packages of almost 3,000 students, University President Mary Sue Coleman announced last week. Known as M-PACT, the program will fund grants of $500, $1,000 and $1,500 to eligible students, allowing them to use the money to replace loans in their financial aid packages. Once the program is in effect, 80 percent of the aid in a full financial aid package will consist of grants and work-study assistance, which students do not have to pay back upon graduation. This year, students whose families could not afford to make any contribution to their tuition costs received 30 percent of their financial aid in the form of loans. The new program would reduce that number to 20 percent. The University expects the program to help 2,900 undergraduates in its first year but pre- dicts an expansion in years to come as more low-income high school students become aware of the new grants and make the deci- sion to apply to the University. Melinda Kleczynski, an LSA sophomore, said she will be taking out loans next year in order to cover tuition costs and would be inter- ested in the M-PACT program. "Basically, I don't know where I'm going to be after college or what my situation will be, so grants would be really helpful." Coleman said. Coleman's Michigan Difference campaign The new program will also be helpful to stu- - an effort to raise money through private dents no longer receiving a Pell Grant under donations in the face of state appropriations a new federal formula determining eligibil- cuts - will provide seed money to get the ity. Under the new formula, the Bush admin- program on its feet. Coleman has committed istration will cut grants to students who no $9 million in longer qual- donations to ify for them fund the ini- MIbecause their tial three years US m a family income of the program has increased. and after that " The new program will offer grants to replace loans in The money hopes to main- student financial aid packages saved from tain its funding this process with the help of " Grants through M-PACT will be given in sums of $500, will go toward private donors, $1,000 and $1,500 making the ultimately cre- grants given ating a $60 mil- " The program expects to help 2,900 undergraduate to more needy lion endowment and work toward a possible expansion students larger for M-PACT. and possibly University " Grant eligibility will be need based, but the University increasing the Provost Paul expects that M-PACT will even offer some assistance number of stu- Courant said to students who do not come from the lowest income dents receiv- that, despite bracket ing grants recent cuts in The new state appropria- * The program expects to help 2,900 students and formula will tions, the Uni- work toward a possible expansion affect Univer- versity remains sity students committed to because 1,677 making educa- out of the tion affordable to all students. 3,335 undergraduates who receive the grant "We choose to invest our scarce resources will lose about $400, the Detroit Free Press in accessibility and in the lives and futures of reported, while 300 University students will Michigan's students," he said. no longer qualify for the grants. The $60-million endowment that will Engineering sophomore Conor Burns said ensure the survival of M-PACT will be cre- the new grant program would be extremely ated through a massive fundraising effort, beneficial to him. Burns said he will be losing grant money due to the recent cuts made to the Pell Grant program. "Basically, I'm receiving about $10,000 a year in loans and I'm $15,000 in debt, so hav- ing more grant options would be great," Burns said. "I don't want to be shackled with more debt than I can possibly pay off in the 10 years after I graduate. The less I have to pay back, the better." Although M-PACT aims to help those whose families fall into the lowest income bracket and who already qualify for the high- est Pell Grant of a little more than $4,000,4 Coleman expressed hope that the program would benefit those whose families fall into a higher income bracket - $50,000 to $70,000 per year - but still have trouble paying for college. Andrea Craig, a counselor at Detroit City High School said she was excited to hear that M-PACT may help families who do not fall4 into the lowest income bracket. "Working families who are not making an extremely high amount of money, but just meeting their needs don't get the Pell Grant money, you have to be considered destitute in order to qualify," Craig said. "It would be wonderful for a good student coming from an average income family to qualify for this new grant program." Eligibility for M-PACT grants will be determined by the level of family contri- bution and other factors used to distribute financial aid packages. Two-thirds of Uni- versity students currently receive need-based financial aid in the form of grants, loans or scholarships. I Median grades will be on LSA transcripts December 07, 2004 By Justin Miller Daily Staff Reporter Faculty members of the College of Literature, Sci- ence, and the Arts yesterday approved two changes to students' official transcripts, which are likely to go into effect next year. Faculty voted to add the median grade of classes onto LSA students' transcripts, and they approved a measure to omit the "W" on first-semester students' transcript if they choose to withdraw from a class after the drop/add deadline. LSA will begin listing the median grade on tran- scripts for classes that have 10 or more students. The median grade will only be listed on transcripts for LSA students. The change seeks to provide more information to employers and graduate schools that look at tran- scripts, said Bob Megginson, LSA associate dean for undergraduate education. "I believe there will be a positive effect on every- one because people will believe the University of Michigan is providing more information to make its grading more transparent," he said. The change seeks to make LSA students' grades in particular classes and their overall grade point aver- ages more meaningful. Recently, many employers have been devaluing GPAs out of a perception that they are inflated by universities across the nation. While members of the LSA curriculum commit- tee say the change will counteract grade inflation by making grades more meaningful, Megginson said the changes are not aimed specifically at curbing grade inflation. He said this proposal could encourage some professors to raise their grades to be in line with other professors in their department, or vice versa. 4 "It is not the job of this proposal to legis- latively modify someone's grading system," Megginson said. He said the current system that only includes an individual's grades obscures information that is important for students to understand how they performed in a course relative to their classmates. That distinction would make transcripts more relevant to evaluation by employers and graduate schools. The passed proposal mirrors a similar pol- icy at Columbia University. At Columbia, stu- dent transcripts list the percentage of students who received a certain grade in their classes. "I never heard a negative comment from students (regarding the policy)," said Jayne Brownell, referring to her six years on Colum- bia's faculty before becoming director of the University's academic career center. But plenty of negative comments were heard from some faculty members last night, espe- cially that this effort may make high-perform- ing students' grades seem less impressive than they are. "I think if there's the potential for misin- terpretation that is a negative," said Robert Pachella, professor of psychology and a mem-4 ber of the curriculum committee said. The other proposal the LSA faculty approved is that the "W" that appears on a transcript after a student withdraws from a class after the drop/add deadline will be excluded for first-semester students.