Abigail Adair, a sophomore at Anna Maria College, said she could not have gone to college without the scholarship that allowed her to start school.
Adair, along with about 200 other students from more than 30 Massachusetts colleges, lobbied state officials to support funding for need-based financial aid programs on Tuesday at the State House. They shared personal stories of how they were affected by the state’s financial aid.
“It’s so important for all of the colleges in Massachusetts to come here and thank everyone for all their help,” Adair said.
The students, who were accompanied by members of their colleges’ financial aid staff, spoke individually with legislators from their colleges’ towns and from their own hometowns.
The Student Financial Aid Day was designed to give students the chance to thank legislators for last year’s funding and to press for continued and increased funding in coming years, according to the groups that annually host the event, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
The discussion “helps really to put a face and story on what otherwise would be a line item in the budget,” said AICUM President Richard Doherty. “And it just brings that line item to life, and that’s incredibly important. You can tell as the students tell their stories how much of an impact it makes on the legislator.”
Hearing the stories of individual students is the most effective way to connect with representatives, said Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Robert DeLeo before the audience.
“Let [the legislators] know exactly what this financial aid means to each and every one of you in terms of continuing your education because that’s the most impressive lobbying that we get,” he said. “The best thing is . . . hearing first-hand stories about what this particular line item means to each and every one of you.”
Joseph Moore, AICUM chair and Lesley University president, said the lobbying was a positive measure rather than a negative, pushy one.
“Lobbying here for you is not a selfish act,” he said. “It is a selfless act because your stories represent the thousands of other students that can’t be here today.”
Doherty said “the kaleidoscope of sweatshirts and different schools” assembled at the congregation was impressive, referring to the different college apparel students wore.
“There’s a cultural impression of private colleges as serving wealthy, white students . . . and that’s really not what the student bodies on these campuses are like at all,” Doherty said. “I think that for legislators to see [that], it makes an impression.”
Senior Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Clantha McCurdy said the lobbying is necessary because “even with this level of support, the cost of attending a college in Massachusetts, public or private, has risen much too fast and has exceeded the purchasing power of our primary grant program, the MASSGrant.”
Funded by appropriations from the Massachusetts Legislature, the MASSGrant program provides need-based financial assistance to undergraduate students residing in-state and awards grants that vary from one to five years, according to the MDHE Office of Student Financial Assistance website.
But McCurdy said students should ask legislators to squeeze just a little bit more money to help with financial aid.
“There are a lot of students that, because of need-based aid, don’t have to work as much outside and so they’re able to focus on their studies and they’re able to graduate in four years,” Doherty said.
Representatives from Boston University’s financial aid office and the Boston University Government & Community Affairs group also attended.
BU School of Management junior Michelle Zimmerman, a recipient of the MASSGrant and the Massachusetts Gilbert Grant, represented BU’s student voice, along with a BU Office of Financial Aid official and two GCA officials.
“As a person who works at the university, I think it’s really my place to bring students here to participate in the event,” said Christopher Hart, the senior assistant director at BU’s financial aid office, to one legislator. “I think AICUM works really hard to bring the recipients together with the people who work here.”
Many students said receiving financial aid makes a huge impact.
“I feel like the majority of students in college now need financial aid,” said AMC sophomore Jessica Flores. “Especially now with the economy . . . I don’t know how anyone can afford to pay for college without financial aid.”
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