When Ivy League schools announced plans to grant free tuition to students whose families make less than $50,000 a year, the Fairfield community wondered whether this University would take a similar step – and University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx did, just in time for Diversity Week.
On Monday, von Arx announced an agreement with Bridgeport’s high schools that will allow students whose families make less than $50,000 a year an opportunity to attend Fairfield free of tuition costs.
An alumnus of Princeton and Yale, von Arx decided that Fairfield had to put its own Jesuit spin on the program. By reducing the line to $50,000 and reaching out to the school’s less-fortunate neighbors, von Arx is inviting a demographic that has been absent in the University until now.
This is a plan that allows our students to continue as beacon of learning in Fairfield County. It also provides the University an opportunity to step in and provide a lifeline to a city that has experienced declining finances.
Fairfield has continuously provided support to the poor of Bridgeport, mainly through the volunteer work of students and Jesuits motivated to serve others. Fairfield’s service to Bridgeport has become part of the school’s identity.
For example, Fairfield’s basketball teams call the Arena at Harbor Yard home, a modern building in a desolate area of a decaying city. The crew teams also row in a battered neighborhood along the Housatonic River.
Student activism has also directly helped Bridgeport, as manifested in the community-based Hunger Cleanup event and as well as the early learning Head Start Program.
Reaching out to Bridgeport carries out Fairfield’s passion for service to a community we are always trying to aid, and hopefully this will strengthen our connection with our neighbor.
While the new program will make a difference in Bridgeport and provides an opportunity to increase campus diversity, it does raise important questions.
Offering free tuition will be costly for the University. It may also cause further budget issues that could affect funding of other necessary projects that must be addressed, such as housing.
In addition, a quarter of the University’s students already come from this income bracket, according to the press release on the new policy. So, one must wonder if some of this financial help should be offered to potential students who are in the same financial position, but hail from other areas. After all, wouldn’t that truly add more diversity?
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