AIDAN POLLARD
News Editor
Starting next year, Fredonia will be offering Good Neighbor Awards to out-of-state students from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
There is currently a president’s award for out-of-state students, but it is merit-based, and there are a finite number of scholarships.
The new award will be a reduction of tuition rather than a scholarship, and all students from Ohio and Pennsylvania would receive the awards for their time at Fredonia, provided they remain on campus all four years.
The award will reduce tuition to a point that makes Fredonia’s tuition competitive with the state tuition in P.A. and the average tuition in O.H.
Tuition for out-of-state students is normally $16,980, but the award brings it down closer to $11,000 for eligible students. It will remain approximately $3,000 more for P.A. and O.H. students than in-state students to attend Fredonia.
Those who receive the reward will remain eligible for scholarships on top of the award.
“We have the ability to offer high-quality education for less expensive than staying in-state,” said Executive Director of Enrollment Services and Director of Admissions Cory Bezek.
And then [out-of-state students] can get a personalized experience so they’re actually getting hands-on experience, regardless of their discipline, throughout their four years.”
The initiative will focus on recruiting in the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh, Erie and the Cleveland-Akron area.
Although there is not a numerical goal for how many P.A. and O.H. students the Good Neighbor Award should bring, administration is looking to greatly increase Fredonia’s out-of-state exposure.
“Many students … don’t know what Fredonia is, but they’ve driven by us for 15 years. They just never have gotten off the exit,” said Bezek. “That’s a very different thing than, say, coming from Long Island, where for the most part, unless you came from a music camp or one of those, you probably haven’t set foot on campus until your junior or senior year.”
The Good Neighbor Awards are focused on recruiting in the critical 100-150 mile radiuses of Fredonia, and that critical area had previously been underutilized due to the geological restriction of Lake Erie and the border restriction of P.A.
Normally, SUNY schools have to pay a penalty for offering out-of-state tuition reductions, but Fredonia was able to avoid that fee due to the state border and lake-related restrictions that cut into the school’s critical recruiting radius.
The Good Neighbor Award also has implications in athletic recruiting, as O.H. does not have any state schools that offer NCAA DIII athletics.
Dr. Cedric Howard, the vice president of Enrollment and Student Services, recounted being at his son’s cross country meet in O.H. when he ran into one of Fredonia’s coaches on a recruiting trip.
“I hear behind me, ‘Dr. Howard, how are you?’ and it was our track and field coach,” said Howard. “… and so [recruiting in O.H.] was never something [Fredonia’s coaches] really considered before, but now they know they can play in that space, and they can operate in the space in ways we hadn’t thought about before.”