Published: September 07, 2009 09:55 pm      

IU incentives deserve credit

Indiana University’s plan to reward students for good grades

THE ISSUE:Indiana University’s plan to reward students for good grades.

OUR VIEW:We hope it will result in a measurable improvement in student performance.

Bravo to Indiana University for coming up with a new program to reward students for good grades.

Granted, the university is responding to pressure from state lawmakers who were irked at an announced increase in tuition, and we understand lawmakers’ frustration.

Boosting the cost of tuition at a time when many Hoosier families are struggling to make ends meet does seem a bit tone deaf.

Still, the university still deserves credit for giving its students a chance to control the cost of their education. Our hope is that Purdue University will follow suit.

The IU program gives in-state undergraduate students on the Bloomington campus a chance to earn $300 off next year’s tuition if they are enrolled full-time and earn at least a B average both semesters this year. Students at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis also may earn $300 “incentive grants,” while students on other campuses may receive $200 for earning good GPAs while taking at least 12 credit hours of classes.

At a news conference to announce the program, IU President Michael McRobbie acknowledged that the move was intended to address lawmakers’ criticism of the school’s decision to raise tuition 4.6 percent this year and 4.8 percent next. But he said he also wanted to give students a chance to have “some skin in the game” regarding the cost of education.

The program, an expansion of the school’s Degrees of Excellence initiative, could cost up to $3 million — money the university says it will get from savings elsewhere and from other sources.

Tuition at the school’s Bloomington campus is $8,613 this year, and it’s set to go up to $9,027 next year. A $300 grant would cut the increase to $114, a jump of 1.3 percent.

Frankly, when total costs run more than $10,000, a $300 credit doesn’t amount to much, but, of course, every little bit helps.

Our hope is that the experiment will work, that it will result in a measurable improvement in student performance. Students need every edge they can get in today’s difficult job market.

Frankly, good grades never go out of style. We’d love to see such incentives continue, and perhaps even increase, in the years to come.

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune