President Obama calls for Pell Grant expansion

Colleges and universities across the country reacted positively this month to President Obama’s proposed expansion of the Pell Grant program, which provides the most common form of federal financial aid for low-income college students.

The expansion — part of the 2011 federal budget proposed on Feb. 1 — would award grants to 1 million additional students and raise the maximum grant value from $5,550 to $5,710 in 2011, according to Inside Higher Ed.

The Pell Grant expansion comes as the grants have grown even more important for low-income students.

Thomas Espenshade GS ’72, a sociology professor who researches diversity in higher education, said in an e-mail that increased federal funding could help colleges provide financial aid, because recent endowment losses have tightened financial-aid budgets at colleges and universities across the country.

“Any move to expand the size, number or eligibility for Pell Grants is an effort to reverse these other trends,” he said.

The new rules, though, are not expected to have a major impact on the University’s financial-aid budget.

Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Robin Moscato said in an e-mail that while the percentage of Princeton students who receive Pell Grants has nearly doubled in the last decade — reflecting University attempts to bring more students from low-income families to campus — the federal grants constitute only 2.5 percent of the University’s scholarship budget.

Though Moscato said she expected that percentage to increase slightly if President Obama’s proposal is adopted, “it’s only going to be a relatively minor amount,” she explained.

Pell Grants are typically awarded to “non-traditional students such as older returning students and part-time students” and students attending schools, such as community colleges, where the grant would make up the bulk of tuition, Moscato said.

“When you look at institutions like Princeton, you’re looking at traditional college-age students,” Moscato explained. “Fewer students qualify because their eligibility is based primarily on their parents’ resources when they enter ... whereas recipients of Pell Grants typically provide their own income.”

Despite the small impact the proposed program expansion would have on the University’s financial-aid budget, Moscato said she strongly supports more funding for Pell Grants, explaining that the grants “are the cornerstone of the government aid program making it possible for so many lower-income students to attend college.”