University of Guam President Dr. Thomas Krise and Senior Vice President Anita Enriquez together with other UOG Staff – spoke in front of the Guam Legislature about UOG student’s tuition, financial aid, and enrollment rates.
PNC’s Don Sulat has the report on this story…
Dr. Krise reports that for the Fanuchånan 2021 semester: 326 students were awarded $896k in regional and private scholarships.
Which is comprised of 130 students receiving $278k in regional scholarships. 164 students received $551k in other private scholarships and 32 students received $67k in UOG Endowment Foundation scholarships. As for Regent Scholarships – 205 students were awarded $369.3K.
Meanwhile, for the FY 22 Student Financial Assistance programs budget – Dr. Krise reports that $1,8M of $4 M of benefits were awarded to 607 students for the Fanuchånan 2021 semester. With a concentration on health professional training awards and the re-opening of protech awards. Lastly – the Merit scholarships is still the largest award category with it totaling 45% of the total budget.
As for Federal Aid, which according to Dr. Krise is what many of UOG’s students heavily rely on. 1,222 students received $3.1 M from the federal pell grant -469 students received a total of $1.6M in federal direct loans. and $12.1M from CARES and ARP from FY20-22 was processed to 14,616 individual grant awards for the same semester.
Dr. Krise was quoted as saying “Students who are enrolled in the beginning of the pandemic and are still enrolled now will have 5 different payments over that period of that so thats why its larger than the number of students is because some students are getting up to 5 grants from that period of that time.”
As for how tuition assistance is helping student enrollment, which according to Dr. Krise has been down across the nation thanks to the pandemic. Dr. Krise reports that federal aid is one of many contributing factors in keeping students enrolled.
Dr. Kreis says “Financial aid is really critically important to all of our students. 61% of our students are Pell Eligible which is an indication of relative financial need. So that gives you a clue on how important financial aid is.”
Moreover, Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Success Dr. Lawrence Camacho reports that the decline in student enrollment is down 7% from the Fånuchanan semester. And to help increase student admission for the upcoming semester, Dr. Camacho reports that they are coming up with a program to help address highschool recruitment.
In terms of investment towards the University – Dr. Krise reported that UOG has turned 3x times its initial investments from GovGuam.
In particular, Dr. Krise says “The economic report shows that every dollar you put into the university returns you 3 dollars in additional tax revenue. So the investment in the University is a money maker for the Government of Guam, its a money maker for the economy of Guam, it’s $370 million in economic impact.”
Moreover – Senior Vice President Dr. Anita Enriquez stated, that the University needs more than just tuition in order to accommodate both their and the students needs.
