Mississippi students may receive less money from the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant than they expect this semester.
Mississippi State University student financial aid director Bruce Crain said unless Gov. Haley Barbour waives the cut to state aid programs or the state legislature puts some additional money in, the amount awarded by MTAG will be prorated down by about 12.5 percent.
“Let’s say if a student had a $25 MTAG award, [which] some of them do, $25 would be a $3.13 cut,” he said. “If you had a $500 MTAG award, which is the maximum MTAG award a student could have, it would be $62.50.”
He said it will not be known if the reduction will happen or not until about March 15.
“We’ve been given a heads up it might be coming, but we won’t know yet until a couple of more weeks,” Crain said. “We’re kind of in limbo right now. We don’t know.”
Annie Mitchell, Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning director of media relations, said there was a mandatory state budget cut of 5 percent.
“Because of that cut to the budget, we’re about $911,000 short with state financial aid for the spring semester,” she said. “That will impact about 21,000 students for MTAG awards. The average impact to each student is about $43.”
This is not the first time an MTAG cut has been considered. Crain said the option was considered three or four years after the program was started in 1995.
“It was a budget issue, but they decided not to,” he said. “I think the little bits cut out of that program, because it’s not that big of a program anyway on a per-student basis, that they decided not to prorate it. It just wasn’t worth the effort.”
However, he said students receiving Pell Grants should not worry about the amount of grants being decreased.
“There’s no discussion of cutting the Pell Grant program,” he said. “In fact, they’re probably going to increase it. There’s some increases built into the stimulus package as well as some planned increases in the Pell Grant program.”
Sophomore biology major Jessica Ware said she is not very happy about the proposed cut.
“When we fill out all the online applications and we do everything they ask us to do, and that’s kind of our reward for living in the state of Mississippi and going to a Mississippi institution,” she said. “I think that the reason that they do that is in hopes that they will keep educated people in Mississippi to better the state, so I think that they should keep that up.”
She said if the rate is lowered, it should start with incoming freshmen and not affect students who have already received MTAG awards.
“[Freshmen] don’t really know what they’re getting into, but for the people who have already been promised that money, I think it’s better that they should be able to keep that money,” she said. “With the economy now, it’s totally understandable and I’m totally not surprised.”
Crain said between 4,000 and 4,500 MSU undergraduate students receive MTAG awards. He said there are requirements besides being an undergraduate that must be met to receive any MTAG awards.
“You have to be full time,” Crain said. “You have to have a 2.5 or better grade point average. You have to be a Mississippi resident.”
He also said students cannot receive MTAG awards if they are eligible for the maximum Pell Grant. Crain said unlike the federal Pell Grant, MTAG is a state program.
“The state legislature put it in place, so it’s part of the legislative process,” he said. “If it’s prorated down, it’s part of the legislature’s decision to do that.”
Students can apply for the MTAG through the state of Mississippi’s financial aid office Web site.