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Thursday, May 16, 2024

DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM

Illustration by Emily Lichty

Amid rising tuition costs, students criticize Northwestern’s practice of reducing institutional financial aid in response to outside scholarship wins By OLATUNJI OSHO-WILLIAMS

daily senior staffer @osho_olatunji

With triplets entering college at the same time, Jaida Hill’s parents were thrilled when she won an outside four-year, $80,000 scholarship just before graduating high school in 2021. Though NU had already offered Hill about $50,000 in financial aid for each academic year, her family hoped the external scholarship could offset $20,000 a year in additional costs. But when payments began in August, Hill’s family discovered the University had cut

$20,000 from her yearly need-based aid — the equivalent to the outside award — only a month before she was set to start her freshman year. “We were like, ‘Well, what’s the point of having a scholarship if it doesn’t actually mean anything?’” Hill, now a Communication junior, said. Hill is one of many college students — at NU and other private and public universities — to have their financial aid reduced after winning outside scholarships. This practice is sometimes referred to as scholarship displacement, which affects about half of U.S. scholarship winners, according to a 2021 survey by student discount servicer

Student Beans. Winning an outside scholarship can change the amount of money that schools expect a student’s family to contribute toward attendance. The student’s effective need, based on their family’s expected contribution, also changes. But these determinations of need aren’t necessarily comprehensive for many students — including several at NU — who say their determined need isn’t the same as their family’s real need. For many students, their goal in pursuing outside scholarships is to bridge the distance between what the University determines their families can pay and what they actually can. All universities, including NU, are bound by

federal regulations when determining financial need if federal dollars comprise part of a student aid package. But for allocating institutional grants, some universities have crafted policies to allow students to retain part of their outside scholarships, while NU typically does not. Despite many students winning outside scholarships up into the tens of thousands of dollars, NU’s practices have left some scrambling to keep pace with rising tuition costs. In trying to offset these costs, students who’ve just won outside scholarships are still sometimes left juggling jobs on top of full course loads.

» See IN FOCUS, page 4

NU, city partner to research ASG Senate SAFC allocates at-home water lead testing $50k in student org funding Project aims to create confidence in water quality Committee funds 26 student groups for 2024-25 By ANAVI PRAKASH

the daily northwestern @anavi_52

When Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) was campaigning for councilmember, he advocated for environmental justice and access to clean water and air. So, when he read about a Northwestern home water lead testing survey, he said he wanted Evanston — specifically 5th Ward — residents to be involved. The Making Water Insecurity Visible group is a collaboration between Anthropology Prof. Sera Young

Recycle Me

and McCormick Prof. Julius Lucks. The group is using biosensor at-home tests and Water Insecurity Experiences Scales, which is a series of survey questions on individuals’ feelings about their water, to offer lead testing to families living in southeast Chicago or Evanston. Participants can pick between three in-person meetings or two on Zoom and one in-person meeting for the tests. Testing eligibility requirements include living in a single-unit home built before 1986 and not running water for a minimum of six hours prior to the testing.

“A big goal of the project is to increase access to lead testing because lead testing is very expensive,” said Jenna Messing, the survey’s project manager. “There are a lot of hurdles to jump through when it comes to lead testing, so being able to have readily available tests would improve a lot of people’s lives and sense of well being.” The study expanded to Evanston after Burns reached out to the group last winter, according to Messing. She said Burns is also part of the group’s committee advisory

» See LEAD TESTING, page 7

By ISAIAH STEINBERG

the daily northwestern @isaiahstei27

One week after the Student Activities Finance Committee announced $2.09 million in funding allocations for student organizations, the Associated Student Government Senate allocated $50,000 on Wednesday to groups which appealed their funding decisions or did not apply for SAFC funding. ASG’s $50,000 budget for Funding Senate appeals is separate from SAFC’s tuitionfunded budget. The budget

was $30,000 last year. Despite the funding increase, organizations still requested more than was available — $82,093 in total. Si x teen organizations received funding from the appeals process. Groups received money for speaker events, holiday celebrations, theater equipment, costumes, tournament fees and more. Allocations ranged from $360 for NU Anime Club and Significant Others A Cappella to $9,600 for Speech Team. SESP sophomore and ASG Co-President Caleb Snead encouraged senators to fully fund NU Mock Trial,

Global Engagement Summit and Speech Team. Snead said the groups have exhausted their other possible funding sources and were at risk of not being able to continue operating. NU Mock Trial received $8,882 — the full amount it requested — to fund travel costs for national tournaments. “To be able to compete without any financial barriers is something that we really try to prioritize, and it’s a message that we talked about during recruitment,”

» See FUNDING SENATE, page 7