State grant changes impact students

A large portion of CSB+SJU students lost part or all of their Minnesota State Grant scholarship money this year. This change resulted from the school receiving significantly less grant funding this year than in previous years. The parameters for the Minnesota State Grant were altered, lowering the qualifying Student Aid Index (SAI) from under 14,500 to under 8,000. 

Financial aid awards are determined by formulas. One of these formulas is for the Minnesota State Grant; it uses the student’s SAI as determined by FAFSA.   

“Normally, institutional money we try to keep pretty similar from year to year, even if there’s a change. The Federal Pell Grant and the State Grant are based on that formula. There’s a student aid index that is used and then based on that it tells the dollar amount that the student is supposed to receive,” said Executive Director of Financial Aid, Robert Piechota. 

FAFSA is always two years behind the current year. To accommodate students who have had recent financial changes, CSB+SJU is offering certain funds to help families with these special circumstances. 

“If a family has a big change in income or high medical or dental bills, we will take that into consideration. That might change the student aid index number, which means we may be able to give them more aid. Even if it’s not from the state of Minnesota, sometimes it means we’re giving them more money from CSB+SJU,” Piechota said. 

The Minnesota State Grant is not only significantly lower for private colleges this year, but for other Minnesota schools as well. This change is due to federal funding cuts to Minnesota overall, decreasing the amount of money available for all grants. Funding cuts also included cuts to Medicaid, which supports Minnesota residents, hospitals and clinics.  

“Medicaid contributes significantly to the financial viability of many Minnesota health care providers, including hospitals, mental health centers, home care, community clinics and nursing homes. Medicaid funding losses – even if temporary – could increase uncompensated care for these providers,” according to the MN Department of Human Services. 

This federal funding cut led legislators to spend a larger share of state money to save HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center), a Level I adult and pediatric trauma center and safety-net hospital in Minneapolis, which was on the cusp of bankruptcy. 

“Unfortunately, we’re not in a time where there’s a surplus of money from the state of Minnesota. Everyone is fighting for every dollar, and there are so many different organizations all asking for funding. It’s [HCMC] one of those things that was very needed,” Piechota said. “Not everyone was going to be happy with the decisions. Now the issue is every year it’s a fight for the funding.” 

While the future of the Minnesota State Grant is uncertain, Piechota explained that it depends on how the next election goes. 

“If you’re following politics at all, you know how volatile everything is. It’s [the future of the grant] really going to depend on the midterms and who is in office and how they’re reviewing it,” Piechota said. 

One thing students can do to potentially increase funding from the Minnesota State grant is to send their personal stories to legislators, explaining how the grant has impacted them. 

“The more you’re hitting up legislators saying, ‘Hey, this is really important, and you need to do this for me,’ and the more they hear from families, the better. Those things have more of an impact coming from a student or a story. Students need to step up because it really does help,” Piechota said.