The CMU Promise Tour is about to hit the road again, expanding the financial support program to include all of Colorado while increasing eligibility to include more low-income and first-generation families.
Last year, President John Marshall and CMU students traveled hundreds of miles in a series of road trips across western Colorado visiting high schools informing students if their family makes $65k or less per year, CMU would cover the cost of their tuition.
This fall, the tour will expand beyond western Colorado, with new stops planned throughout the state. In September, Marshall and CMU students will visit the eastern plains, reflecting the university's broader commitment to reaching students throughout Colorado.
From the tours' previous success reaching students who might otherwise not attend college, the CMU Board of Trustees expanded the promise to include students in every county in the state as well adjust the income eligibility from $65k up to $70,000. What's not changing is that it is a mult-part promise that includes an “opportunity for a better life” and a commitment to “teach students how to think, not what to believe.”
“It’s not just a promise to cover tuition, it’s a promise for an opportunity for a better life, a promise to teach students how to think and not what to believe,” said President Marshall. “We are trying to meet a much broader problem in terms of what Coloradans want and need out of higher education.”
A Gallup poll from this summer showcases how the American public’s view and confidence in universities and colleges continues to decline. Most people think higher education is too expensive and students often don’t feel like they belong with polarizing worldviews taking over many campuses across the Unites States. The newly announced state-wide expanded promise is an example of how CMU is advancing its mission, its first-principle values and its commitment to what campus leaders call “radical affordability.” In addition to the CMU promise, the university also revamped how it issues financial aid and also increased merit aid representing a holistic approach to removing financial barriers to higher education.
The 2023 tour included stops to Cedaredge, Northfork, Olathe, Nucla, Naturita, Delta, Central, Fruita, Grand Junction, Eagle, Rifle, Meeker, George Washington and Aurora West High Schools. CMU is up in enrollment in all of the communities where the tour stopped. Fort Morgan will be the first community on the expanded promise tour.