Officials from Waldorf College in Forest City are urging state legislators to include Waldorf students in the state’s tuition grants, grants that already go to students at other private colleges in Iowa. Waldorf students were on the list until about a year ago, when a Lutheran association sold the school to the for-profit Columbia Southern University in Alabama. Waldorf president Joe Manjone says it’s a matter of equity.

Manjone says, “We’re the only private school in Iowa at this time, that I know of, where our students are not eligible for the Iowa tuition grants.” Students who enrolled since the ownership change aren’t eligible for the grants because Waldorf isn’t named in the Iowa law making for-profit college students eligible.

Manjone says the students need the help with tuition to stay in school. “In the fall, a number of our students left because of financial reasons,” he says. “Having an Iowa tuition grant would provide the extra finances possibly that would allow students to stay here.”

Waldorf’s new owners are boosting enrollment, as the current number of 650 students enrolled is about 100 more students than a year ago. Pending legislation would restore the 18-hundred dollar grants which Mandone says offsets about 10% of Waldorf’s tuition.