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| May 1999 Baker Grants: Financial aid
program's
The name of relatively new financial aid grants for Montana students has been changed to honor the memory of a former state commissioner of higher education. The Montana Tuition Assistance Program (MTAP) offers grants to low- or middle-income students who often must work while attending school because they don't qualify for federal Pell Grants. The state Board of Regents decided to change the name of MTAP grants to Baker Grants in honor of Jeffrey Baker, who died March 22 of lung cancer. Baker, who was 57, served as Montana commissioner of higher education from 1993 to 1996. Up until days before his death he was serving as the eighth president of Iowa's Luther College. Baker was instrumental in starting MTAP. In 1995 he created a task force to investigate how to make higher education more affordable for the average Montana student. Task force chairman Mick Hanson, director of financial aid at UM, said, "Baker was the man who gave us the vision, authority and freedom to think outside the box. The 14 task force members collectively came up with some unique ideas, and MTAP was one of the results." The first MTAP grants were distributed to qualifying Montana students during the 1998-99 academic year. UM gave 500 grants. The Legislature recently appropriated $3 million to fund Baker Grants for the next biennium. Financial aid departments will decide how to distribute the grants without any additional requests from students. The grants are normally for $500 or less. Hanson said the large increase in state appropriation will allow financial aid administrators to expand the scope of Baker Grants to many more students. UM's four campuses funded the program last year primarily through a one-time distribution of $100,000 in excess interest earnings. |
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