November 23, 2005

WMU room-and-board offer draws criticism

Ken Jenschke, a Kalamazoo area resident and father a Western Michigan University (WMU) senior, says The Kalamazoo Promise is a "wonderful thing, a fantastic idea.\'\' But he\'s not happy with an offer by WMU to throw in room and board for graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools. "We\'re talking private vs. nonprivate money -- that\'s my problem,\'\' Jenschke says. "It\'s one thing for private donors to provide full-tuition scholarships for KPS graduates, it\'s quite another for a public institution to subsidize college costs for a specific geographic group. WMU officials acknowledge that they\'ve been getting complaint calls since they announced Friday they would subsidize room and board for four years for KPS graduates who qualify for The Kalamazoo Promise, the district\'s new scholarship program. Western\'s announcement came shortly after Wayne State University announced it was cutting room and board by 50 percent for KPS graduates. John Beacon, WMU vice provost for enrollment management, declined to say how many calls he had received, although he said it was not a lot. It makes perfect sense, he said, for WMU to help KPS students.

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