On September 11, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved a policy for the school to increase its financial aid of $78.6 million to $84 million for enrolled students.

The financial aid issue will spark the interests of local students because U. of I. is a popular college for Lockport Township students to look into. Nicolette Simmons, a senior at Lockport Township who is applying to Illinois, has the University of Illinois at the top of her list for colleges to go to next year.

“The university’s tuition is too high for an in-state school,” Simmons believes. “The increase in financial aid is a good idea because it allows more opportunities for students to go to school and become successful.”

In 2014, the total estimated costs for each student at U. of I. are at least $30,000 per year. Over the years, the expenses have been steadily rising, but the University of Illinois has been trying to improve on its financial aid.

Recently, the University of Illinois suffered a decline with in-state students enrollment. According to Chicago Tribune, “The percentage of in-state freshmen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall has dropped to a new low, with about 73 percent coming from Illinois compared to 90 percent less than a decade ago.”

Competing with other colleges around the area, U. of I. thinks that an increase of financial aid will be beneficial to the overall enrollment.

Christophe Pierre, the University of Illinois’ Vice President of Academic Affairs, states, “The top three reasons given by these students for not attending the University of Illinois are related to the cost of education. Thus, the cost of attendance is a very important reason that we are losing students to other institutions.”

The new policy hopes to get the attention of more students beyond the normal Illinois borders. Although the university has a large enrollment of international students, they want to broaden the size of students from every social class, if possible.

Pierre explains, ”It is hoped that we will be able to attract more students from low-income families, but also more students from the lower end of the middle class.”

College education can be difficult to afford, so with U. of I. helping out students more with the costs, it can attract the interests of other students making decisions.

“We also have been working hard on limiting tuition increases for the past several years, and our tuition was raised only by 1.7% in both 2013 and 2014.  Holding down the costs of tuition and mandatory fees is the other way that we can attract more incoming students to the University (besides, of course, the many recruitment activities that we organize),” Pierre shares.

LTHS teacher and Illini alumni, Tina Sochacki, was paying $8,000 a year while going to the school from 1985 to 1989. With bank loans, government aid and working two jobs, she was able to pay for her expenses on her own.

“Back then, students could manage costs by themselves, but today the costs are so out of reach, students are not able to pay it on their own,” Sochacki comments.

“Our goal is to revert this trend and to get more Illinois applicants to accept our offer and to join this great University,” Pierre shares.