OxfordPress.com

OXFORD — In his first state

of the university address to over 400 faculty and staff members Friday, Miami University President David Hodge announced the college will offer free tuition for qualifying Ohio students beginning next year.

"We have worked hard in the past few years to better align tuition with the ability to pay for the cost of an education, effectively moving the state subsidy toward those who need it most," Hodge said. The initiative will provide tuition to all academically qualified Ohio students with family incomes less than $35,000.

"The new promise of support for students from families with annual incomes of under $35,000 is another major effort to create a rational tuition plan that makes it possible for all students to access the high-quality Miami education, while providing sufficient resources to sustain that high quality," he said.

Any Ohio resident with a family income of less than $35,000 who enters the Oxford campus as a first-time, full-time freshman,

or who attends MU's Hamil-

ton and Middletown camp-

uses and then relocates to Oxford, is eligible for the free tuition.

The initiative will cover all tuition and fees for up to four years. Hodge says he hopes the new program initially will benefit between 125 and 150 new students every year "and more as the program becomes well

known."

The funds for this new initiative became available because of a donation of more than $10 million from Lois K. Klawon, a 1939 MU alumna from Westlake who died in 2005 and left half of her estate to MU to support needy students.

"By combining our existing levels of support, the income from the Klawon gift, matching funds from other generous donors and the federal and state financial aid these students already receive," Hodge said, "we are able to undertake this significant new initiative that we hope will encourage students from low-income families to see Miami as a real option."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2190 or khardy@coxohio.com.