CITY HALL — A program providing free tuition at City Colleges will now include scholarships that will help students go on to earn a four-year bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Building on a Star Scholarship Award program announced last October, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans Tuesday to provide scholarships for Chicago Public Schools alumni and City College graduates to continue on and finish their bachelor's degree at UIC.
The program includes a $5,000 award for the students' last two years of study in a UIC bachelor's program.
While the $2,500 a year will not come close to covering their entire UIC tuition, mayoral spokeswoman Lauren Huffman said it will provide City College graduates the opportunity to continue their studies at reduced cost. According to a UIC admissions web site, estimated tuition and fees for a state resident in a basic bachelor's program is about $7,500 a semester or $15,000 a year.
In a news conference Tuesday at the university's Richard J. Daley Library, UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis said it reflected their "common mission" with City Colleges, adding, "Our collective role is to open even more doors" for Chicago students. He said it "will make a huge difference in the lives of many citizens of Chicago."
According to Huffman, the new Star Scholar Award will allow Chicago Public Schools students with a B average who qualify for free tuition and earn an associate degree at City Colleges to continue on at UIC.
Amiridis said UIC enrollment would be automatic and "guaranteed" for CPS products and City College graduates who maintain a 3.0 grade-point average, or a B average.
"You don't just get it," Emanuel said. "You have to earn it."
Emanuel likewise acknowledged it was a small fraction of the overall tuition costs for two years, but said that for many Chicago families with college-age children "every dollar counts." He said for many students it "would make the difference between going to school or not."
Emanuel and City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman placed the overall value of the scholarship program at $45,000 a student. They insisted the two-year stint at City Colleges would save students $40,000 from the equivalent at a four-year university, with the $5,000 break on tuition over the next two years an added bonus.
The new program will be solely funded by UIC, Huffman said.
UIC committed to giving the tuition break to more than 250 students a year who go on from City Colleges to UIC.
"UIC wants them and welcomes them," Amiridis said.
Amiridis placed average tuition for a school year at $17,000, but insisted the $625,000 annual UIC commitment would be separate from other grants awarded on the basis of economic need and other criteria.
Hyman said 800 City College grads a year go on to UIC. She said the expanded tuition program would provide many of them "a straighter and more affordable path."
According to Emanuel's office, the original Star Scholarship Program providing free tuition to college-ready CPS graduates with a B average and a qualifying ACT score has enabled 800 students to continue their studies this year.
Yet City Colleges grant only two-year associate degrees, so the new program attempts to build a bridge to a four-year bachelor's degree.
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