Julie Charleston was apprehensive about attending Fairfield Universtiy. “Nobody looked like me,” she said, weary of her African-American heritage. However, Fairfield turned out to be a dream come true for the Bridgeport native.
“It’s an amazing school,” she told Central High School students in an information session. “It’s small. The teachers want to get to know you. They help you.” Charleston was speaking at a session for high school students interested in the Bridgeport Tuition Plan at Fairfield University. She gushed about the many benefits of attending the university.
The Connecticut Post recently reported that Fairfield has helped qualified students attend college by way of free tuition since 2008. The student’s annual income must be less than $50,000 per household.
Fairfield currently covers the entire tuition bill of 37 students from Bridgeport, according to The Post. That amounts to $1,479,630 per semester (not including room and board), nearly 3 million dollars per year.
This begs the question: in a time of financial struggle at Fairfield University, are programs like the Bridgeport Tuition Plan at risk?
Martin O’Sullivan reported in The Mirror earlier this week, “according to the administration, the school is amidst a $6.1 million budget deficit.”
Worse yet, he cited FUSA president Rob Vogel’s words: “Unless Fairfield seriously changes their models, and restructures what they’re looking to do financially … I think it will be inevitable that they will have to eventually cut programs.”
To tighten budget restrictions on such an important program as the Bridgeport Tuition Plan, or worse, to cut it, would undoubtedly come with backlash at the detriment of the administration. In the interest of ethics and morals, budget cuts are surely more likely to be directed at less significant programs.
And while the school’s administration struggles with its finances, students such as Kimerlie Thepkaysone, a Bridgeport Tuition Plan scholarship hopeful, struggle with their own. She told the Connecticut Post that in order to help her family make ends meet, she works two jobs over a span of a 12 hour word day, all in time to be back to finish homework assignments so that she might attend a university after graduation.
Though not all students who submit an application for scholarship with get it, it’s well worth it to apply. “The scholarship program has made the universities a possibility for many students who wouldn't have even bothered applying years ago,” said Keila Ocasio of The Connecticut Post.
The scholarship is the chance of a lifetime for prospective students who wish to continue their education. But in the ever-competitive world that is Fairfield University, only few will be able to enjoy four free years of Fairfield University.
Even so, current recipients of the scholarship are thankful for what it is enabled them to do. Patience Mhlangla, formerly of Zimbabwe, now dreams of obtaining her bachelor’s degree so that she can become a doctor in Third World countries.
The Bridgeport Tuition Plan scholarship has allowed her to come one step closer to her dreams.
