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Students advocate on Capitol Hill for a cause close to their hearts
Rutgers–Camden senior John Moldovan is unequivocal about the impact of financial aid on his life.
“I could not have gone to college without it,” declared the aspiring lawyer, who will graduate from the School of Business next month thanks, in large part, to a combination of federal Pell Grants, Perkins and Direct Loans, and state-funded Tuition Aid Grants.
Moldovan says his immigrant mother’s struggles raising him and his sister as a single parent in Gloucester County not only made him grateful for the programs that allowed both siblings to attend Rutgers, but also gave him a passion for the subject that he eagerly shares.
On April 15, Moldovan brought his enthusiasm and personal story to Capitol Hill, where he and 19 other Rutgers students met with New Jersey’s Congressional delegation to advocate on behalf of need-based aid programs. For more than half of them, as well as thousands of their fellow students, financial aid is their gateway to higher education – a gateway, they argued, that needs to remain open and adequately funded if college is to remain accessible.
Rutgers students receive approximately $200 million in federal financial aid, including Pell Grants, Supplemental Equal Opportunity Grants, Work-Study, and Perkins and Direct loans. Pell Grants alone amount to $28 million, assisting more than 10,000 of the neediest students. All told, about two-thirds of Rutgers students receive some form of financial assistance.
While the Pell Grant maximum has increased in recent years, funding for many other student aid programs has remained flat or decreased since 2000, said Francine Newsome Pfeiffer, director of Rutgers’ Office of Federal Relations in Washington, D.C., which coordinated the student advocacy trip.
“Since 2002, the Federal Work-Study Program at Rutgers, for example, has lost more than $600,000, despite a modest increase last year,” said Newsome Pfeiffer. There aren’t enough dollars to support more jobs for increasing numbers of qualifying students. The resulting ripple effect also impacts on campus offices and community organizations that depend on student workers, she said.
Nine years ago, when federal funding for student aid was starting to erode, the federal relations office began bringing students to Washington to communicate how significant these programs were and why they should be increased, not cut.
Although President Richard L. McCormick accompanied the students to their meetings with lawmakers last week, he ceded the floor to them so they could make their arguments directly to the members of Congress.
“You are the ones who can best articulate how these programs impact you and your fellow students,” McCormick told the group.
Robert Erazo, a pharmacy major, said that being a financial aid recipient “made me speak comfortably because it hit so close to home.”
After practicing their talking points aboard the train and during a briefing session with the federal relations staff, the students were poised and confident in their face-to-face meetings with New Jersey’s representatives and Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez.
Roger Masi of Lodi, who aspires to public office, said that having students meet with lawmakers was useful in “putting a face on the issue.” He found the politicians to be more candid than he expected in their interactions with the student advocates. “It has a different, better effect if someone personally affected by an issue speaks about it,” said the senior political science major.
Fabiola Tony, a junior political science major from Williamstown, said she felt the student presence made a difference. “I believe [the legislators] really listen and appreciate our stories and what we have to say.”
Striding through the imposing halls of Congress, it was hard not to be dazzled. “It was my first time in our nation’s capital, and I was lobbying for higher education, not sightseeing,” said Erazo. The mission of his trip was front and center.
“It’s imperative that students raise their voices,” he asserted. “We are the future. What better people to speak on our behalf than ourselves?”