Proposed HOPE cuts causes action, anger among CSU students
SGA forum held last Thursday to discuss HOPE
Chad Wayne / Staff Writer

The recent announcement of Governor Barnes’s proposed changes to the HOPE Scholarship has sparked controversy and debate on campuses across the state. CSU is certainly no exception. Heated discussion during the SGA forum held on January 27 proved that CSU faculty and students alike have strong feelings on this issue.

SGA Vice President began the open floor discussion with a brief overview of the proposed changes. These changes would include eliminating the “Pell Offset.” This elimination would mean that students who qualify for Pell Grants would ??receive the full HOPE Scholarship benefits in addition to the Pell Grant. 

Other proposed changes involve allowing college sophomores who lose the HOPE Scholarship to regain it their senior year. Also, the changes would allow students who are not eligible for the HOPE Scholarship when they graduate from high school to earn it later in their college career. The most controversial of the proposed changes, however, is the proposed cut in HOPE Scholarship fee coverage.

After this brief overview, the floor was handed over to Vice President of Business here at CSU. Vice President attempted to clarify the details of the proposed reduction in HOPE coverage, as well as field questions.

According to Vice President, this proposed reduction would not only exclude certain fees from HOPE coverage, but would also place “caps” on others. 

For instance, the Student Activity fee, which would still be covered if the proposal goes into effect, would be “capped” at its current amount of forty-four dollars. This means that HOPE would not cover any future increase in that amount. The same types of caps would be placed on both the Health and Technology fees.

The one hundred and six dollar Athletic fee and the nine dollar Access fee would be excluded from HOPE coverage entirely.

According to Vice President, all tolled, the fees would amount to two hundred and twenty-three dollars, with HOPE covering one hundred of those dollars. The remaining one hundred and twenty-three dollars would come from the student or, if applicable, Pell Grant money.

The question was raised to Vice President as to whether or not the purpose of these fee caps is to discourage universities from raising fees. Vice President said he personally believes that the purpose of the caps is to keep the HOPE Scholarship “healthy,” while still leaving “the option for the institution to raise the fees in order to provide services to the students.”

SGA Senator Jacqueline Jordan questioned whether or not it was possible to petition against some of the proposals while still supporting others. No one present at the forum had a definite answer as to whether or not the acceptance of one proposal is contingent on the acceptance of the other proposals. It does, however, appear at this time that by signing a petition, one is petitioning against all of the proposals.

The discussion was brought to a close with some statements from SGA President, Eddie Gordon. 

Gordon said, “The reason why student governments are concerned is because, what if you don’t receive Pell? You can’t expect everyone to receive Pell.” 

According to Gordon, “We [SGA] have called all of our state representatives. We’ve called the senators. We’ve called the representatives. I even called Mr. Barnes’ office and we haven’t received one message yet.”

Gordon also discussed the press conference concerning the proposals, which is to be held in Atlanta on February 28. 
Gordon says that he himself will be attending to protest these proposals. 

According to Gordon, “There [are] going to be a lot of students [at the conference] protesting this because one of the main concerns is, what about Pell? What if somebody doesn’t receive Pell?”

“If you feel like you’re opposed to this,” Gordon said, “please take a petition and get it signed.” 

Gordon will be taking all of the petitions he receives with him to the conference. 

He also added, “If you want to attend [the conference], please let us know.”

The conference will be held at the State Capitol.