 "Photo: Paul Chouy; The Daily Texan")
Erin Bates, one of 785 students attending Huston-Tillotson University, will not be able to return to the school for her sophomore year.
Although she was awarded some financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, it’s still not enough to cover the university’s approximately $11,000 per year tuition.
“My mom still pays part of my tuition out of her pocket every month,” Bates said. “It’s really hard for her.”
Bates, a freshman, is not the only student with financial problems. More than 95 percent of students at Huston-Tillotson, a historically black private university in Austin, receive some form of financial aid.
Many historically black colleges and universities across the country have been struggling with money, and enrollment at these institutions has been decreasing. Because they typically rely more on tuition to fund many of their programs, some universities have had to cut faculty and classes from their budgets.
In contrast, Huston-Tillotson’s enrollment has been increasing steadily by 3 or 4 percent for the past 10 years. Although they have not yet had to lay off staff members or cut classes, they will be reevaluating their budget within the next few months, said university spokeswoman Linda Jackson.
“[Huston-Tillotson] operates on a $19 million budget,” Jackson said. “But we will be evaluating the budget to look at ways to be more effective. Travel is one of the areas that they are looking at closely.”
In addition to examining the travel budget, the school may also have to reduce the amount of scholarship money dispensed each year.
Currently, 4.5 percent of the university’s budget is dedicated to scholarship money. Without these awards, students like sophomore Darien Graham might not be able to attend the school.
“I get a little bit of money from a basketball scholarship,” Graham said. “But if tuition keeps rising, I might be considering going to a different school.”
Graham said he sometimes worries the university might not always be able to provide him with scholarship money.
Compared to Huston-Tillotson, a smaller percentage of students at UT receive financial aid. Last year, 64 percent of UT students received some kind of aid money. Of the 32,000 students who received financial aid, about half of them also had received scholarships.
“Most of the scholarship money given out was from the institution,” said Tom Melecki, director of UT’s Student Financial Services. “About 5,176 scholarships were awarded from outside sources.”
Melecki said UT has seen an increase in the amount of students applying for financial aid since 2001. About 5,000 more students applied last year than in 2001.
“All universities have been impacted by the current financial situation,” Jackson said. “I don’t think it impacts HT anymore just because it is a private institution.”
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