Officials at Colorado Mesa University based in Grand Junction plan to expand a financial support program to include all of Colorado while also increasing eligibility to include more students from low-income and first-generation families.

The CMU board of trustees expanded what’s dubbed as the CMU Promise to cover the tuition of  students not only from 22 western Colorado counties, but also those from every county in Colorado. Trustees also increased the annual household income eligibility requirement from $65,000 to $70,000.

What didn’t change, was a commitment to students, said CMU President John Marshall. “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. We are trying to meet a much broader problem in terms of what Coloradans want and need out of higher education.”

The results of a Gallup poll conducted this summer reflect how the public confidence in universities and colleges continues to decline. Most people believe higher education is too expensive and students often don’t feel like they belong with polarizing world views taking over many campuses across the Unites States.

Marshall said the expanded statewide promise offers an example of how CMU  is advancing its mission, its first principle values and commitment to what campus leaders call radical affordability.

In addition to the CMU Promise, the university also revamped how it issues financial aid and increased merit aid in a broader approach to removing financial barriers to higher education.

To promote those efforts, a CMU Promise Tour is planned with stops beyond western Colorado to locations throughout the state.

Last year, Marshall and CMU students traveled hundreds of miles in a series of road trips across western Colorado visiting high schools and informing students if their family makes $65,000 or less a year, CMU would cover their tuition.

The 2023 tour included stops in Cedaredge, Delta, Eagle, Fruita, Grand Junction, Naturita, Nucla, Olathe, Meeker and Rifle. CMU enrollment increased from all of the communities in which the tour included

This fall, Marshall and CMU students will visit the Eastern Plains of Colorado, reflecting the university’s broader commitment to reaching students throughout the state.