Saving Berea
July 5, 2009
Filed under People and Places
After graduating from high school in rural Kentucky, Natasha Smith applied to and was accepted by the University of Kentucky. She would be one of the first in her family ever to attend college. There was only one problem: her parents had to provide for nine children and couldn’t afford even Kentucky’s in-state tuition.
See our photo gallery from this story.
Natasha considered her options, including community college and satellite campuses of big state universities. But she says she wanted the “college experience,” to live away from home on a traditional campus, something that would have been beyond her financial reach but for one small, unique school in the hills of eastern Kentucky.
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For more than a century, Berea College has offered free tuition to students who could not otherwise afford it. The school enrolls only financially disadvantaged students and provides full scholarships to its entire student population of more than 1,500. Its primary focus is on residents of Appalachia, though it now enrolls students from around the world.
It’s an inspiring endeavor that is under threat by the recent recession.
Providing tuition-free higher education has long required a delicate financial balancing act. Without revenue from tuition, Berea depends almost exclusively on income from its endowment to fund operations.
A year ago that savings account was worth more than $1 billion. It has since lost as much as 30% of its value, forcing the school to make difficult choices to ensure financial sustainability. Since February, Berea administrators have been considering how to restructure the college to operate on fewer resources without abandoning its mission to provide educational opportunity to disadvantaged students like Natasha Smith, who is expects to graduate in two years with a degree in nursing.
In this story, part one of two, we talk to Berea students and administrators about the school’s unique mission and the challenge it faces as it adapts to survive in the new economic reality.
I attend Berea College and honestly I do have to pay some to go to Berea but it is technically for my room and board which I still have to borrow money to attend school. I am a first generation college student in my family and without Berea I would be in debt up to my eyeballs even though I was offered full scholarships to four other schools across the country. Most of the students that do attend Berea must pay some amount for their room and board. Several of the other students I have talked to have said they would not mind paying a little more to help keep the jobs of the staff and faculty. Of the people who were eliminated this past school year their jobs are being put onto the student labor. One of the people who was eliminated worked at our bookstore and she was the one person who got us the largest discounts on our books by finding the cheapest sources to find our books. Without her many students are afraid of the costs we are going to have to pay for our books. Last semester I spent over $800 in books which was for only 3 books. I searched online for the books and they were more expensive that way than buying them at our bookstore. All the extra work that will be given to the students will hurt the students as well as the college.
Fascinating piece. I had no idea there was an even quasi-free school. But I don’t understand how the tuition is free. Where does the endowment come from if the school doesn’t solicit money from graduates?
In response to Michael and whomever may wonder the same, as far as I know, the endowment comes mostly from alumni and other donors who truly believe in the mission of the college. It’s the president’s job to seek them out. What they probably failed to mention is that Berea provides a Christian-based education, which may have something to do with the generosity of those graduates who make it big later (and many do). As a graduate myself, I feel it would almost be a crime not to lift up a kid who is in the position I once were in. Every student is an asset the college and the region. It’s like a big circle – the “Berea Bubble”, it’s called
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Good answer, GP. I think the fact that most of Berea’s donors are non-alumni is a testament to the power of the College’s mission. People all over the country – many of whom have never even stepped foot on campus – simply believe in the work the College does and invest in these students’ lives.
To offer a little more info: in 1920, the College’s trustees decided that every unrestricted bequest the College received would be placed into the endowment and the principle wouldn’t be touched. Many people give modestly to Berea during their lifetimes and make their “ultimate” gifts through their estates. This policy has propelled the endowment to the point where the College is able to offer tuition-free education to students. Bequests are precious to the College and meaningful to donors because their estate gifts generate income for Berea students in perpetuity. Talk about leaving a legacy!