“We understand the concerns of legislators in making education available across the board. It should be completely inclusive. … If there is such a program, which allows for tuition assistance, it should be tuition assistance to everybody. Instead of just going out of state, provide tuition assistance for students coming to the University of the District of Columbia,” Andrews says.
Norton says UDC students favored the tuition bill when it was enacted in 1999, as it also recognized the university as a historically Blackinstitution.
“UDC students supported my bill when it went through for a very important reason. I used the bill to get something that UDC has wanted for decades — they got HBCU status and the funding that goes along with that.”
Norton adds that because a majority of UDC students are working adults, as opposed to the traditional full-time college-goers D.C. TAG attracts, “the bill is not drawing from the same pool at all.”
She also stresses that the 35 percent increase in district residents’ college attendance “tells you that [D.C. TAG is not] taking from UDC. UDC has had trouble stabilizing its student body because it did draw from such a limited pool. … We love UDC. We need UDC. But we also need something for kids just getting out of school who want to go to a four-year college or a specialized college that does not have what UDC had.”
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