VCC Magazine Summer 2017

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Virginia C apitol Connections, Summer 2017 25
888-729-7428 • •
B ERNIE HENDERSON
Chief Executive Officer
Funeral Celebrant
1771 North Parham Road
Richmond, Virginia 23229
Phone: (804) 545-7251
You’ve seen the numbers; you’ve heard the reports: Americans are
more burdened by student loan debt than ever before. In fact, seven out
of 10 college students have accrued debt at an average of more than
$30,000 by graduation for a total of more than $1.4 trillion nationwide.
InVirginia, six out of 10 college students graduate with debt, owing
an average of about $28,000 each. More than one million Virginia
residents owe a combined $30 billion in college loans. It’s no wonder
that amidst those harsh realities student debt has emerged as a prominent
political issue, discussed often a year ago on the national scene by
presidential candidates and the point of numerous bills introduced in the
recent Virginia legislative session. In fact, Virginia lawmakers proposed
nine student loan bills designed to provide relief and to protect students
from overwhelming debt loads. All nine bills failed.
With the debt numbers climbing and no immediate relief in sight,
Bluefield College, a private Christian liberal arts college in southwest
Virginia is taking its own action to ease the debt burden for college
graduates. Bluefield is taking a more generous approach to the awarding
of its financial aid and offering a unique half-price tuition program to
students who can least afford higher education.
“The national discourse on higher education has been centered
on concerns over the rising level of student debt, the rising costs of
education, and whether the average American family can afford a
college education,” said Bluefield College president Dr. David Olive.
“So we’re responding with ways to help those who are desperately in
need of an education to better their lives, but have little means to obtain
their dreams.”
For example, two years ago Bluefield launched a Pathways half-
price tuition plan to “provide a ‘pathway’ to quality higher education
for students from the lowest socio-economic level,” said Dr. Olive. The
plan in essence cut tuition in half for students who qualify for the federal
Pell grant and live at home within 45 miles of the school. It also allowed
these students to attend Bluefield with little to no direct out-of-pocket
impact on their families.
“Due to stagnate and in some cases declining family income,
students and their families from our region are struggling to afford a
college education,” said Dr. Olive, “but through the Pathways initiative
we are doing all that we can to remain accessible to the students who can
least afford the expense of a college education.”
Thanks to Pathways, students in the program are projected to
graduate with much less debt than the average college student. For
example, students who qualify for the maximum Pell award and live
in Virginia and qualify for the state’s Tuition Assistance Grant could
graduate with as little as $20,000 in debt, which is much lower than
the $28,000 average for Virginia college graduates and the more than
$30,000 national average.
“Bluefield College recognizes there are families that desire a
college education for their sons and daughters, yet they struggle to meet
the financial obstacles,” said Dr. Olive. “We want to make our quality
higher education more affordable and accessible to those families and
students. I can’t imagine a better way to live out our Christian mission in
serving the ‘least of these’ who live in our surrounding communities.”
In addition, Bluefield is making an intentional effort to secure more
institutional aid for its students and to award more financial aid dollars
to an even greater number of students. In fact, 98 percent of Bluefield
College students receive some form of financial aid, and the college
awards an average of $12,000—more than half its annual tuition
cost—to its students. The result of all these efforts: a college nationally
recognized for its value and affordability and an average student debt
load significantly lower than that of the average Virginia college
graduate. At Bluefield, students overall are leaving with just more than
an average of $22,000 in debt, compared to the $28,000 average for
Virginia college graduates.
“As legislators, we have made many efforts to make higher
education more accessible at our state institutions,” saidWill Morefield,
a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 3rd
district in southwest Virginia. “It’s exciting to see a private institution
doing the same, because education is the key to our success. We’re
seeing a mass exodus of our young people in this area, and (Bluefield
College) gives them the opportunity to get a quality education from a
traditional university right here at home.”
And Morefield is not the only one recognizing Bluefield’s efforts.
The college was just recently named among the top 50 Christian colleges
in America for graduating students with low debt burden by Christian
Universities Online, among the most affordable online colleges in
America by College Choice, and among the nation’s best values by The
Economist magazine. And value and affordability are not the school’s
only distinctions as this past fall U.S. News and World Report listed
Bluefield among its Top 50 Colleges in the South, the State Council
for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) ranked Bluefield graduates
among the highest earners in the state in its Wages Report for the
Virginia Longitudinal Data System, Virginia Living magazine named
Bluefield one of the top colleges inVirginia, and the American Council
of Trustees and Alumni designated Bluefield as one of just 22 colleges
nationwide to receive an “A” rating for quality core curriculum.
“Perhaps more than ever before, education is key to enabling upward
mobility in the workforce and producing an informed and engaged
citizen,” said Dr. Olive. “We are working hard to ensure students and
their families have access to an affordable, values-driven education, and
we will continue to do so in an effort to impact and transform as many
lives as possible.”
Bluefield College Takes Action to Ease Student Load Debt
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