ALPINE To help attract more students, Sul Ross State University has begun offering the Lobo Promise, a scholarship that offers tuition and fees for students from families that make $80,000 a year or less.
“This is a program that is available at most public universities across the state. Just about every university has some sort of program similar to this. It’s rooted in underlying financial aid eligibility, so most students, not all but most students, that qualify for financial aid will meet that criteria of family income that’s established by an institution,” Sul Ross President Carlos Hernandez said in a phone interview.
“In our case, we’ve established $80,000 as the family income threshold and most families that report $80,000 of family income or less qualify for federal financial aid. In addition to federal financial aid, they also qualify for state financial aid so the combination of those two financial aid programs generally covers anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of tuition and fees,” he added.
The university has some statutorily required set-aside funds for need-based aid that they use to make up that difference between the 70 and 90 percent, Hernandez said.
The program is modeled on University of Texas Permian Basin’s Falcon Promise program. The only difference is their income threshold is $100,000.
Sul Ross is part of the Texas State University System.
Every university designs their program for their particular populations. Sam Houston State has the Bearcat Promise, Texas State University has the Bobcat Promise and Lamar University has the Cardinal Promise.
“It’s typically branded along with the university’s mascot,” Hernandez said.
He added that Sul Ross has seen an increased interest in attending the university by local school district students who have responded well to the program.
Last fall, Sul Ross had 1,449 students enrolled in Alpine.
They also have campuses in Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Uvalde.
The Lobo Promise was brought back two years ago after it was eliminated by previous administrations.
“We retooled it, redefined it and brought it back this past spring,” Hernandez said.
He acknowledged that it’s almost essential for universities to have a program like this because it’s so expensive to go to college now.
“This is a vital tool that will allow students, especially low socioeconomic status students (to attend college). The bulk of our students here at Sul Ross State University qualify for financial aid. This program is set up to ensure that their tuition and fees are covered at the very minimum,” Hernandez said.
He added that Sul Ross also is looking at direct admission, which UTPB announced it was starting in March.
UTPB has partnered with Ector County ISD and Midland ISD. Direct admissions provides qualified high school seniors with automatic admission to UTPB. It also simplifies the college enrollment process.
Under the initiative, ECISD and MISD high school seniors with a GPA of at least 2.75 qualify for direct admissions at UTPB.
“We’ve requested a copy of the MOU. UTPB established a memorandum of understanding that they executed with their partner ISD’s that defines the criteria for direct admission. We recently secured a copy of their MOU and we’re working to adopt a similar program for all the school districts that we serve,” Hernandez said.
Sul Ross serves 16 different school districts including Alpine, Marathon, Terlingua, Presidio, Sanderson, Fort Stockton, Marfa, Valentine, Fort Davis, Pecos, Van Horn, Grandfalls, Monahans, Imperial, Crane, and Sierra Blanca.
For fall semester 2023 undergraduate students, 49.5 percent are first generation and 80.4 percent were eligible for financial aid.
In addition to Lobo Promise, Sul Ross rolled out a Presidential Plus scholarship program that was generously funded by the Permian Basin Area Foundation. It is a four-year grant that secures the student awards for four years.
“It targets high academic performing, low socioeconomic students within the 16 high schools that we serve. … These are full-ride scholarships. It’s tuition, fees, room and board,” Hernandez said.
The Lobo Promise is funded 100 percent by federal financial aid, state financial aid and institutional need-based aid.
“The vast proportion of it comes from federal and state financial aid,” he said.
They are also planning to roll out a donation strategy, particularly for graduates to contribute to an ongoing scholarship fund.
“We already have very generous support from our alumnae and the community. We have a significant number of scholarships that are available, but very few of those scholarships are actually full-ride scholarships. They tend to be partial scholarships targeted to specific degree programs, so we’re working to expand that base (to) allow us to provide more full-ride scholarships to students in the region,” Hernandez said.
