Thomas Katsouleas kicked off his inauguration ceremony Friday as the University of Connecticut’s 16th president with an announcement that lower-income Connecticut undergraduates starting at the university next fall will be eligible for free tuition.

“It is critical for U.S. higher education institutions to work to change both the perception and reality of what they deliver,” Katsouleas said Friday. “This is critical for the future prosperity of Connecticut. To keep our brightest, most talented and most diverse human capital in Connecticut, we must continue to offer as many of them as possible a high quality and affordable education in their state.”

Katsouleas came to UConn in August after serving as a vice president and provost at the University of Virginia. His inauguration Friday included a morning of presentations by faculty in their areas of expertise and an afternoon ceremony.

The tuition initiative, which he called the Connecticut Commitment, will provide students whose families have an annual income of $50,000 or below with the opportunity to come to the university tuition-free. Tuition this fall was $13,798.

The program would not include room and board, which came to $13,238 this semester, or fees at $3,428, but Stephanie Reitz, spokeswoman for the university, said that if students have other scholarships aimed at defraying tuition, they can use funds left over in their Connecticut Commitment grants to cover those costs.

Reitz said that many of the students from families with incomes well below $50,000 will already qualify for federal grants and other scholarship programs, but she said there is a band of students whose families make too much money to qualify for the federal grants, but not enough to be able to afford UConn.

“We are finding that a lot of students in that particular cohort are not even applying to UConn because they are realizing they can’t afford to make up the difference,” Reitz said.

She said that situation disadvantages UConn because the university “misses out on great students” who don’t feel they can afford to attend.

It’s uncertain at this point how many students will qualify for the program or how much it will cost, but Reitz said the university expects thousands of students over the next four years to be eligible, including many first-generation college students, members of underrepresented minority groups, and other academically talented young people who may not otherwise apply to UConn because of finances.

Katsouleas said he is undertaking an aggressive fundraising campaign to help support the program.

Beginning with incoming freshmen next fall, students may receive the Connecticut Commitment grant for a maximum of four years if they remain in good academic standing and their families continue to meet the income qualifications. Incoming transfer students also are eligible for the award for up to two years with the same conditions.

All admitted Connecticut residents who are enrolling as freshmen or transfer students will be automatically considered for the Connecticut Commitment institutional grant if they fill out the FAFSA form by the Feb. 15 annual deadline.

The award also is available to more than one sibling at a time.

“We are sending out a message to Connecticut students: Not only do we want you at UConn, We want to make your degree affordable,” said Nathan Fuerst, UConn vice president of enrollment planning management.

The university has a campus at Avery Point in Groton.

Kathleen Megan is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (www.ctmirror.org). Copyright 2019 © The Connecticut Mirror.

kmegan@ctmirror.org