WINONA LAKE – Grace College is making higher education more affordable with its “A Measure of Grace” initiative. Beginning with the incoming class in fall 2015, the college will lower its undergraduate tuition by 9 percent and provide free textbook rentals for all undergraduates. Additionally, tuition will never be higher than a student’s first year, and they will receive a “loyality reduction” of an additional $500 off per year, according to a provided press release. The idea for the initiative began several years ago. “Grace College, over four years ago, started with the Reimagine Program. It was a three-year initiative that we rolled out. And it was really receptive. The whole initiative and motive behind it was to create affordable excellence for today’s families. So the passion behind it is to create a faith-based affordable excellence for families and kids today,” David Grout, Grace College media relations, said in an interview Tuesday morning. Families and students responded very well to the Reimagine program, he said. “We were like, ‘Hey, what else can we do to be more affordable and make a difference for today’s kids and be innovative?’” he continued. Grace President Dr. Bill Katip presented an idea, which the college vetted and looked at all the different ways it could be put together. A Measure of Grace was then launched in August. While the incoming class in fall 2015 will have its undergraduate tuition lowered by 9 percent, current students will not be left out of the initiative. “Grace knew that we had this present student body and they don’t have all the different benefits of getting a tuition reduction. But we really wanted to honor them and create benefits for them. So the present students, who are here right now, whether they’re a freshman all the way to a junior, when they come back they’re going to get $500 reduced off their tuition this year as a way to say, ‘We care about you, we believe in you,’ and they also will receive the free rental books,” Grout explained. He said they actually got a benefit even though that’s not what their expectations were. “They sort of got ‘bonus,’ and that was sort of a way for the school to hold integrity and say, ‘we’re going to share with you,’” he stated. Grout said Grace believes that will help with student retention, satisfaction and seeing that the administration cares about them and wants them to be at the college. Grace’s current student retention rate is 81.1 percent for traditional undergraduates, according to information provided by Director of Institutional Effectiveness Mark Rakes. Next year’s tuition for full-time incoming undergraduate students at Grace will be $22,450, with the drop of 9 percent. In addition to that, Grout said, “You have decreasing, sort of like loyalty for staying in school. So the following year, it’s going to lose $500 so it’s going to be at $21,950. And the year after it’s $1,000 less, so it’s cumulative, it keeps adding. So your junior year it’s going to be $21,450, and then your senior year, it’s going to be $1,500 less.” On top of that, students will get free book rentals for whatever classes they sign up for. Grace appraises that at about $1,200 per year. “So on the other side of it is scholarships,” Grout said. “Grace is maintaining its merit scholarships, its presidential scholarships, its athletic scholarships and several other scholarships like Grace Brethren Fellowship scholarships and diversity scholarships.” To be able to reduce student costs without cutting programs, Grout said Grace has created a “new economic engine in some ways.” “We believe that student growth creates more revenue. We believe that our student growth for the responsiveness to the Reimagine Program as well as, we believe, this program, will continue our student growth. So that’s part of it,” Grout explained. “Another part of it is the retention rates of students. If you retain a student, they’re not flying out the back door. You don’t have to recapture them and spend all that energy trying to refind new students. You’re holding them in the tank, and that’s helping your effectiveness of ministry, too.” Grace is becoming efficient, he said. It is trying to be economically conservative in a sense. It renegotiates prices on things like copiers so it can pass the savings on to students. It builds dormitories that are effectively built. The college is conservative with the way it is spending money because it wants to pass the savings on to the parents and students, he said. “We’re at a good point of what’s called economy of scale,” Grout said. “We have gotten to a growth point where we can add students and not add all the massive infrastructure that’s included with it, but still keep that quality the same and still keep that excellence the same.” According to a press release, Grace College achieved a record-breaking enrollment this fall of 2,187 total students, a 14.9 percent increase over the 2013 enrollment of 1,904. Grace welcomed 426 new on-campus students compared to 399 in 2013. Grout attributed that growth to programs like Reimagine and A Measure of Grace. “I think it’s the innovation, the three-year program. Fifty percent of our students are inclined to do the three-year degree,” he said. People are seeing Grace as being innovative and trying to meet their needs where they’re at, he continued. “There’s this stickiness about Grace that it’s making a difference and students are really pleased with being here,” he said. “Kids are enjoying it, and learning, and they’re getting opportunities that might not be at other schools.” Grace has 65 majors, and it’s added many master’s programs. “So as part of A Measure of Grace, they have the opportunity to do a blended program. So while they’re in their bachelor’s program, they can start on to their master’s program,” Grout said. “The thing that we don’t want people to assume is that we’re cutting back or reducing in any way. We’re actually adding to the quality. We’ve added some 3D printers, we’ve bought some brand new science equipment, we’ve added some additional faculty so there’s ways that we are trying to continue to move that bar up so there shouldn’t be any kind of association of cutbacks mean less experience or less quality. We’re trying to move both bars at the same time,” Grout said. “So I think that is reflective of the passion of Dr. Katip as well as the people that are here on the grounds.” For more information about Grace College and its “A Measure of Grace” program, visit the website at www.grace.edu/gamechanger
