LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Many people have had a dream of going to college without collecting debt, and it was once a reality for several Arkansas Baptist College students until this semester.
Now they're speaking out about concerns they have been seeing when it comes to their financial aid.
"Having the same GPA from the beginning and them not only forcefully taking out a loan, but then on top of that, adding a balance [and] making me say that I owe. When they're supposed to owe me in reality," said Samiyah Brown.
Samiyah Brown, Joseph Price, and Shantia Branch are all students who were shocked this week after they learned they have an outstanding balance on their school accounts.
"Students are leaving because they owe $14,000 to $16,000 when they're supposed to be here for free," Brown explained.
They thought their tuition was paid for under scholarships and grants, but they said that something changed during the break now they've been looking for answers. They're not alone, dozens of students signed a petition asking the school to do something about it.
"This is a cry for help, this is a state of emergency for Arkansas Baptist College, and we need that type of help," Price said.
Interim President of Arkansas Baptist College, Regina Favors explained how the money students are referring to was a part of COVID and federal funds but is no longer available.
"They won't have that this year, because the cost of attendance has changed but the cost of attendance would be for pell, and loans. and with that it doesn't cover the full tuition," Favors described.
She said students with an owed balance are seeing it for several reasons: they already had a balance on their account, enrollment is down, and they need the funding, and federal aid has not quite kicked in yet.
"Our donations are very small, when you really think about it, we don't get major grants. We don't get major scholarship funds to offset the students that we get, and unfortunately, they don't have enough to cover the full cost of attendance," Favors said.
She said that not even including the census that just finished on January 29, finalizing the last day to register for the spring semester could be a factor in why some students are not seeing their full pell grant or financial aid.
In the meantime, students have requested an itemized breakdown of their tuition and full transparency moving forward on what scholarships and money are available to them.
"It's really just about funding and transparency about funding or where the money is going. All we're asking for is a little transparency and hope on why this is going this way, and not going to miss certain things like that," Price described.