“I’ll Be Right Behind You”: Native American Families, Land Debt, and College Affordability

Family connections are critical for Native student persistence, yet families’ voices are absent in research. Using an Indigenous-specific version of educational debt, land debt, we center familial perspectives by exploring the financial struggles among Native families as their students transition to a Predominately White Institution. Findings indicate that Indigenous families experienced fear and frustration surrounding college affordability and the financial aid process. Regardless, these Native families made extreme sacrifices in paying for college. These findings were contextualized within the economic conditions created by land theft from Indigenous peoples. Returning to land debt, we argue that institutions need to begin from a perspective of what is owed to Native peoples in their policy decisions. That is, such decisions should take account of the benefits historically accrued by institutions residing on forcibly taken Indigenous land, and then examine how that debt can be repaid by supporting Native students, families, and communities.

Library consortia contributing to college affordability: collection and OER initiatives in the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

Purpose The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) consists of 128 libraries. This paper aims to present an analysis of collection and open educational resources (OER) initiatives undertaken by CARLI over the past decade that contribute to improving college affordability. Design/methodology/approach After reviewing important literature pertaining to library consortia and college affordability, this paper presents a detailed case study of CARLI’s collection and OER initiatives. Findings Owing to their economies of scale, library consortia have the potential to make substantial contributions to improving college affordability. Originality/value Compared to the efforts of individual libraries to improve college affordability, library consortium efforts have received far less attention in the professional literature. The work of the CARLI consortium documented here can provide a template for other library consortia that are working to improve college affordability.

“Name and Shame”: An Effective Strategy for College Tuition Accountability?

Due to concerns about college affordability, in 2011, the Department of Education began producing two annual public lists of institutions with the highest change in tuition and fees and average net price within sector (top 5% and at least US$600 increase). This study investigates the effect of this low-stakes federal accountability tool on institutional behavior. I use a frontier regression discontinuity design that investigates the effect of being included on either the tuition or net price list at the 95th percentile cutoff (restricting the sample to only include institutions with at least a US$600 increase). I find no consistent effect of list inclusion on affordability or enrollment. I also present several robustness checks that also find little consistent effect.

College Affordability and U.S. News & World Report Rankings:

In an era of billions of dollars in outstanding student loan debt, researchers have posited that the U.S. News & World Report rankings continue to be an influential source of information for prospective students, yet these rankings do not include college affordability metrics in their ranking algorithm. As a result, this study performed a series of college affordability experiments by integrating affordability metrics into the U.S. News ranking algorithm to explore whether any affordability metric predicts overall ranking. Results suggest better ranked institutions enrolled lower percentages of Pell grant receiving students (p < 0.00), while the percentage of undergraduates receiving state aid predicted better rankings only at Regional Midwest and Regional West Universities (p < 0.05). These results suggest many college affordability metrics are not predictive of ranking among the best-ranked, elite institutions. Implications for theory, practice, and college student choice are addressed.

The Role of State Policy in Promoting College Affordability

This article considers trends in state policies that determine college affordability, including trends in state general appropriations, institutional tuition and fees, and state student financial aid. Taken together, these trends demonstrate erosion in college affordability. This article also examines one recent federal policy intervention that has shaped state policy for higher education affordability, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). My analysis of ARRA shows that the “maintenance of effort” provision in the law was effective, as there was no drop in state general appropriations for higher education (including federal ARRA funds) following implementation. However, in a related analysis, I show that ARRA is negatively associated with state spending on student financial aid. Collectively, state policy trends and the ARRA analyses underscore the need for improved state policy in promoting college affordability, as an affordable college education is out of reach for an increasing proportion of students.