Approximately 70 students from each graduating class of Middletown High School will attend MUM. (www.mid.muohio.edu)
As of last week, Miami University's Middletown campus has announced that it is considering giving free tuition to high school students in the Middletown school district.
While the program is still in the preliminary stages, several calls have been issued by the university to the Middletown community for their input. According to Kelly Cowan, the dean of the Middletown campus, many community members and business owners are showing great support for the project, recognizing the program's potential impact on Middletown.
According to Meg Gooch, a counselor at Middletown High School, approximately 1,800 students are in the Middletown school district and 360 in each graduating class, and approximately 44 percent of each class (or 150 students) go onto a four-year university after graduating high school.
Of those 150, about 70 students will choose Miami Middletown as their university. Gooch is excited about the potential program.
"This program will be probably be a good bet for both Middletown High School and MUM - the payoff will be high at all levels," Grooch said.
Courtney Curtner, a member of Miami Middletown's student government, agreed.
"I think it's a good opportunity to bring more students to campus," Curtner said. "A lot of students are afraid to apply to the Oxford campus because it's so competitive but this will allow more students to get the education they want and need."
Cowan said the concepts behind the program are loosely adapted from those of Kalamazoo, Mich. Last fall, the Kalamazoo public school district announced its plan to pioneer a partial to entirely free tuition program, funded by anonymous private donors. The program provides scholarships to students who have attended Kalamazoo public schools for at least four years, who live in the district and attend a Michigan state school or university.
Kalamazoo requires a minimum 2.0 GPA and full-time student standing in order to keep the scholarship. If the program is implemented at Middletown, Cowan said they intend create similar stipulations.
Cowan is one of the main forces behind this plan and affirms that its construction is linked with President David Hodge's Access Initiative - a scholarship program for Ohio residents designed to help make Miami accessible to qualified students, regardless of income.
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According to Web site for Miami's Office of Financial Aid, to be considered for Access Initiative, students need be admitted to the Oxford campus and their family's adjusted gross income should be equal to or less than $35,000. This is the first year the Access Initiative has been offered.
Cowan said because the Access Initiative is limited to the Oxford campus, it concerned her how much additional aid should be given to students of lower income on branch campuses.
Daniel Hall, the dean of Miami Hamilton, commented that while Hamilton currently doesn't plan on implementing the program, he pointed out that it was discussion among community members that sparked the original program at Kalamazoo. While dedicated to helping students from families of lower income, he said that he is still waiting for a formal discussion to be started on Hamilton's campus as well as the community.
Specific details on the program, including how it will operate, can be expected by this summer, Cowan said. At this point the program's architects will explain the purpose and structure of the plan to potential donors.
As of now, Cowan said that the program is still in the preliminary stages of planning and no details concerning monetary amounts, potential donors or specific scholarships have yet been conceived.
According to Cowan, the main idea behind the program is to educate students who will be the next working citizens - which might then stimulate economic revival in the Middletown area. This could result in more people moving to the area.
As far as the possibility of other school districts implementing this program, Cowan said that nothing has happened yet.
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