Hecker speaks about new financial aid program on WABI
Jeffrey Hecker, the executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maine, was a recent guest on WABI (Channel 5). Hecker spoke about the university’s new Maine Matters financial aid program. The program allows UMaine to match Maine families’ financial aid offers from any other New England land grant universities as part of a push to continue educating Maine-raised students in the state. Hecker said Maine has a challenge of keeping young people in the state and the university is targeting its financial aid to those students. “We don’t want Maine students to choose to go to another land grant research university based on cost. We want to make sure that we’re competitive,” Hecker said. Maine students who are accepted to UMaine are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships, which means every acceptance letter will offer either a $500 Maine Matters Award, or a merit scholarship worth $2,000–$8,000, renewable for up to four years.