Undergraduates and soon to be students at the University of Texas Permian Basin are getting an extra boost with their college finances.
On Tuesday, the university announced a new tuition assistance program also known as Falcon Free.
Falcon Free is part of the University of Texas System’s $300 million endowment to expand tuition assistance programs at all University of Texas institutions also known as “Promise Plus.”
The “Promise Plus” Program provides tuition assistance to eligible students at seven UT institutions including UT Arlington, UT Dallas, UTEP, UTRGV, UT San Antonio and UT Tyler.
Falcon Free is a plan that covers the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for students who have limited family resources to pay for college at UTPB.
The announcement was made at a pep rally at Falcon Dome where the UTPB pep band, cheerleaders and members of the student body were present.
Chancellor of UT System James Milliken was also at the event and spoke as well as UT System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife and UTPB President Sandra Woodley.
Afterwards, Woodley, Eltife and Milliken spoke to the members of the media, talking more about the assistance program.
“I would like to start by expressing my deep gratitude to the board of regents for this investment,” Woodley said. “It’s transformational to our community. Over 70 percent of our families will qualify for free tuition and fees at this university and this is something that has never happened before. So our ability to provide this opportunity to our community is really going to make a difference in the years to come.”
Some of the details about Falcon Free includes UTPB covering 100 percent of tuition and fees for families making $100,000 or less starting in the fall of 2022.
The funding is for current students, incoming freshmen, transfer students and online students.
Milliken says he is hopeful in the future that the program can be expanded to include graduate students who are continuing their education at a UT school.
“Right now, it’s for undergraduates,” Milliken said. “There are different kinds of aid that are available to graduate programs. It would be my hope that ultimately, after we provide even more support for undergraduates to attend free of tuition and fees, that we could start in on master’s of students so those who are taking out loans to continue their education at our graduate degree, get assistance from the program also.”
Falcon Free is also only for Texas residents.
“You have to be a Texas resident and you have to be taking 12 hours and fill out your FAFSA,” Woodley said. “It’s a generous investment but it won’t last forever. Get your application in as quickly as you can to make sure that all who apply can benefit from this amazing transformational program.”
Woodley talked about some of the obstacles that have kept people in the Permian Basin from pursuing a college education, which mostly includes financial reasons.
“We’re not a particularly college-going population,” Woodley said. “There are a lot of reasons for that. Money is a big barrier to many people to be able to pursue their university. So again, for students who will come, we have FAFSA nights during the first Tuesday of every month. That helps the students fill out their paper work and make sure they get settled in.”
In West Texas, more than 70 percent of households have an average income below $100,000.
UTPB’s previous tuition assistance program covered $60,000 or less.
Woodley says that while the money is generous it is not unlimited. She talked about how students can apply for it.
“It’s important that students apply early,” Woodley said. “The website is there. The UTPB website is where you can see the information on Falcon Free. It’ll help you connect closely to our financial aid advisor and others who can help students get started. … We have more scholarships and more money than we’ve ever had in our entire history and it’s going to be an amazing opportunity for our community to come and go to college at a world class university with the University of Texas education.”
Milliken talked about how the Promise Plus program is not only important to the UT System but also to the state and country.
“It’s important to UT in general because it’s important to Texas in general and it’s important for the future of our country so we can educate as many families as possible,” Milliken said. “Talent is universal but opportunity sometimes isn’t. That’s the biggest challenge that we have in higher education. How do we match that up? How do we provide that opportunity to everybody who has the talent to pursue a college education? The promise plus program will do just that. It’ll make it available to so many students than before.”
Eltife also talked about his hopes that the Promise Plus program will encourage other schools to step up and do the same.
“There’s so much talk in the country about student debt,” Eltife said. “The UT system is really committed to tackling that on the front end so we’re saying that if you come to one of our institutions, we’re going to do everything in our power so that you can leave without debt.”
UTPB student Brandon Lippert said the program is beneficial.
“Part of the reason I’m here is that I didn’t have the financial support to pay for my education outright,” Lippert said who is also the drum major for the UTPB Marching Band and is the student body Vice President. “My mom has tons of student loans and I come from a single income household so being able to remove one more barrier between someone like me and for other people, hopefully tens of thousands across the system, that’ll be fantastic. That puts more talented individuals into the workforce to achieve what they’ve always wanted to achieve.”
For more information, visit https://www.utpb.edu/admissions-aid/scholarships/falcon-free.
