When DU sophomore Shemar Magee’s struggles with DU financial aid were posted online this summer, he was not expecting to receive much feedback or support. The opposite happened—and it revealed a host of problems with higher education’s financial aid during a global pandemic. 

Magee is an incoming sophomore at DU. In an interview with The Clarion, he outlined his pre-college educational journey; after thinking he would not be able to attend college, he ended up choosing DU since the university offered him a full-ride for his freshman year. 

However, this summer, he noticed an outstanding balance of $2300 per quarter on his college tuition bill. While Magee’s initial full-ride included a combination of federal financial aid, a DU Crimson and Gold merit scholarship and outside private scholarships, he was unsure of why an outstanding balance suddenly appeared on his sophomore year tuition statement.

As a low-income student whose mother was laid off during the coronavirus pandemic, Magee feared for his future at DU with his new financial mystery. Even more so, he wanted to get to the bottom of why he had it in the first place. After rallying close friends and confidants to help him comb through financial statements, call DU Financial Aid offices and analyze the terms and conditions of his scholarships, Magee was not getting anywhere. That is, until his story became public. 

After speaking to her about his struggles, Magee’s previous English teacher and advisor at DSST Cole High School—Kathleen Frank—wrote an article about her past student’s life and his negative experiences with DU financial aid. She posted her piece to the Medium on Aug. 19, an online publishing site for professionals and novices alike to share creative work, educational articles or blog posts. 

Shortly after posting, Frank’s article received high attention from both Magee’s high school and the DU community. The partially-opinionated piece was met with both support and backlash regarding Frank’s hypothesis that DU is “intentionally pushing Shemar out” and “transferring the cost of the pandemic down to low-income Americans of color.” Nevertheless, the DU community burst—sharing the article on social media, questioning and calling DU financial aid on Magee’s behalf and even offering to start various Go-Fund-Me campaigns for Magee. 

Before Frank wrote the piece, she, Magee and his mother sought out the reasons why Magee’s tuition was increasing despite his previous full-ride status. 

Magee is a dedicated college student, earning a 3.9 GPA in his freshman year and pursuing a double major in Psychology and Creative Writing. This follows a shiny academic record in high school (which included self-publishing an original book of poetry and winning the Mayor’s Youth Award), therefore ruling out the option of DU cutting his scholarship for low-performance reasons. 

Other speculations included DU charging more to make up pandemic losses, taking scholarship money away or prioritizing white students. However, Magee told The Clarion that Frank did not think race was the ultimate reason for the financial aid mishap. Rather, she thought it may have been a factor since she had taught previous white students who went to DU and did not have the same struggles. 

“She felt betrayed by DU,” said Magee. “She was speculating on whether it was the pandemic or whether they were trying to push lower-income students or students of color out. She didn’t mean anything bad by the article.” He continued to say that Frank still believes DU is a good school, but she now does not agree with the university’s financial aid policies. 

Nonetheless, Magee received overwhelming feedback on his story. After meticulous research and help from those who volunteered to help him after reading Frank’s article, it was uncovered that the extra $2300 seemed to stem from a mixup due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Though he originally applied to live in a double occupancy room in Nelson Hall to keep room and board costs down, DU placed Magee in his own room, presumably due to the school’s need to physically distance students. Only a handful of lucky students were able to acquire double occupancy rooms this year, leaving students like Magee to quickly come up with the extra housing costs in August. 

The increase from a double to a single suite (without a kitchen) in Nelson and Nagel Halls is $2,628 for the 2020-2021 school year. Therefore, Magee’s aid and scholarships could not cover the outstanding funds. 

While he is able to continue attending DU through more scholarships and community financial help, Magee’s story prompted other current DU students and alumni to share their similar experiences. Magee mentioned at least six other students and parents who had similar situations where their EFC (expected family income) had increased without their knowledge. 

Only one student, Katelyn Trujillo, accepted/responded to The Clarion’s request for an interview. Trujillo, a first-year student, reported an almost paralleled situation; she had initially decided to go to DU for the low cost of attendance (in her case, only $2200 a year), but she discovered her EFC rose to $2600 per quarter when she looked in mid-August. 

“It’s really stressful when you’re low-income and you don’t know what you’re going to be paying,” said Trujillo. “That determines whether or not I can even go to college.”

Trujillo also reported that, while she had applied to be in a double-occupancy suite, she was placed into a single suite without knowing it was going to cost her more. Though she is still able to attend DU, her EFC is still higher than the number which had driven her to choose DU. 

“I was talking to a lot of people to try to fix my financial aid, but it still hasn’t really been able to be fixed,” said Trujillo. “I have solved it a bit by getting a bunch of scholarships but as nice as that is, it still has me worried for next year and if the same thing is going to happen again.”  

Trujillo’s fear of the same thing happening year after year may very well be a reality for many students simply due to annual tuition increases. 

For the 2020-2021 academic year, an average full-time student living on DU’s campus costs, at most, $72,887. This is approximately a $2,500 increase from the 2019-2020 school year. DU, like other American universities, often raises tuition more than 3% per year due to inflation and demand. Last year the tuition raised 2.4%, which was the lowest tuition hike in 40 years according to Chancellor Haefner. 

Business Insider reported on the continually rising costs of colleges, stating, “from the late 1980s to 2018, the cost of an undergraduate degree has risen by 213% at public schools and 129% at private schools, adjusting for inflation.” The amount of college students taking out loans has also increased, jumping from 50% to 60% between 2000 and 2012. 

John Gudvangen, DU’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment and Director of Financial Aid, spoke about common financial aid misconceptions. He noted that “it’s quite rare” that a DU scholarship would ever be reduced. In addition, he noted that the financial aid office annually re-evaluates awards for students who receive need-based aid, which often increases with tuition. 

“[Every year], we re-analyze a student’s eligibility for aid, and it’s based on a higher cost of attendance,” stated Gudvangen. “If all other things stay equal, it’s certainly likely the student would have a higher aid award than the prior year.” 

Nonetheless, the pandemic has spawned a national outcry to decrease tuition for all students, regardless of aid packages: if student tuition implies that all students are allowed to use facilities to the fullest extent, then why not offer a small tuition reduction when campus is not being used? 

However, reducing tuition becomes harder to navigate considering DU is a nonprofit institution. This means DU does not take extra money for personal profit and only charges students for what they need to sustain their academics for a year. While DU does not charge students extra, its nonprofit status has likely put the university in a worse position during the pandemic since it does not have profits to cut into, save for a small emergency fund. 

While DU is a powerful institution, many students have dropped out or taken gap years. Some may be defaulting on tuition, leaving DU with a justification to charge the same rates. 

Universities are less equipped to aid low-income students due to the pandemic’s financial shortcomings. As physical distancing is necessary, only some students get to live in double occupancy rooms, and this negatively affects low-income students. In addition, university financial aid offices are overwhelmed with increasing inquiries. 

“We’ve worked on automation, communication and outreach, but we know we need more ways to make the financial aid process easier,” stated Gudvangen. “We are considering changes that balance the need for compliance and fairness with greater ease and transparency.”

Although Magee did not think his story was going to resonate with people, it revealed a wealth of students, families and universities struggling with financial aid during a global pandemic. While DU and other universities are still learning how to cope with coronavirus’ financial devastation, students like Magee, Trujillo and many others are simply trying to stay in college at all costs.