A group of eight Penn State student leaders penned a letter to leading government officials in the United States Congress calling for greater funding in Penn State’s federal financial aid. The letter came several months after those student leaders wrote to the Pennsylvania state legislature requesting greater funding for Penn State as a whole.

“As leaders representing the nearly 90,000 students at Penn State, we respectfully request your support for an increase in federal financial aid. Specifically, the Pell Grant program supports access and affordability for 17,000 Penn State Students annually, and the Federal Supplement Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work Study programs support upwards of 4,000 additional students,” the students wrote.

The House of Representatives has proposed flat funding for the Pell Grant and halving SEOG and Work Study, which the letter said “could leave thousands of students across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stranded and struggling to obtain the education that they have worked so hard to earn.”

Pell Grant recipients have proved to directly impact the state as graduates are more likely to stay in Pennsylvania than any other state. The letter also referenced Penn State having the highest graduation rate of any public university in the commonwealth because students can attend with financial aid.

“We urge both chambers of the United States Congress to support the Senate’s proposed $100 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award. This increase is an integral first step toward the goal of doubling the Pell Grant, and it will help ensure that low and moderate-income students can continue to afford higher education for years to come,” the students wrote.

University Park Undergraduate Association President Zion Sykes shared his experience as a Pell Grant recipient in the letter.

“In terms of what this has meant, it has provided me — a low-income, first-generation student — with the opportunity to advance my studies and open doors that, without this funding, may not have been possible,” Sykes wrote.

The letter was signed by Michael Fowler and Andrew Jackson, president and vice president of the Lion Caucus, Sykes and Rasha Elwakil, president and vice president of the University Park Undergraduate Association, Seth Hojnacki and Anthony Miduri, president and vice president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, and Tyler Hoppe and Ria Walia, president and vice president of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments.

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