Gov. Andrew Cuomo, with the support of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, announced his new financial plan on Jan. 3 for students attending public colleges and universities in New York State.

According to Cuomo, the Excelsior Scholarship program is the first of its kind in the nation. The goal is to alleviate student debt while enabling thousands of students to receive a quality education and gain the skills they need to succeed in today’s global economy.

“College education is not a luxury,” Cuomo said in a SUNY press release. “It is an absolute necessity for any chance at economic mobility, and with these first-in-the-nation Excelsior scholarships, we’re providing the opportunity for New Yorkers to succeed, no matter what zip code they come from and without the anchor of student debt weighing them down.”

In order to receive the scholarship, students must be enrolled at a SUNY or CUNY two- or four-year college full-time and come from a household making less than $125,000 per year. The plan will help more than 940,000 middle class families and individuals and will cost approximately $163 million per year once fully phased in.

The plan will be phased over three years, beginning in the fall of 2017. New Yorkers making up to $100,000 annually will qualify, increasing to $110,000 in 2018, eventually reaching $125,000 in 2019.

“I am very proud of Gov. Cuomo’s leadership and proposed Excelsior Scholarship Program,” Oswego State President Deborah Stanley said. “SUNY Oswego applauds and supports his effort to help make college more affordable to a greater number of New York students and families.”

Some students at Oswego State believe that college should not be free, but should be more affordable.

“Costs are way higher than they should be for the average individual and hinder them for years after they graduate,” sophomore Nathan Bates said. “College is an investment, but not everyone’s college experience is the same, so I believe we need to make it overall more affordable for the masses.”

Alex Masterson, an Oswego State sophomore, also believes that college is an investment in the future.

“The whole reason behind going to college is to get a higher education and to gain access to the jobs that pay well,” Masterson said. “I believe that the price of college is too much, but that free college is too extreme.”

Stanley said that the scholarship program will help expand access to many more deserving students and the proposal does not suggest that any institution in the SUNY system will compromise on quality or adjust admission requirements. She said that Oswego State is committed to increasing access to academically talented students.

“With support in funding from the legislature, we can provide a high quality, affordable threshold to a prosperous and satisfying future for many more New Yorkers,” Stanley said.

James Gantz, a sophomore, disagrees with free tuition because he believes that it will promote more people to go to college. Not every career requires a degree.

“The military will always need more soldiers, there are trades that need to be done that don’t require people to go to college, along with other careers,” Gantz said. “By making tuition free, people will be more inclined to go to college instead of looking into these other careers which may suit them better than college would.”

Sanders said that he strongly supports Cuomo’s plan and urges New York legislators to pass the important proposal and become a model for the rest of the nation.

“If the United States is to succeed in a highly competitive global economy, we need the best educated workforce in the world,” Sanders said. “With exploding technology, and with most of the good paying jobs requiring more and more education, we need to make certain that every New Yorker, every Vermonter and every American gets all the education they need regardless of family income.”

Oswego State sophomore Ryan Cobane is in favor of Cuomo’s plan and hopes that if it passes, he will be around to see it.

“Tuition free state universities are a great resource for members of low income families,” Cobane said. “They offer the opportunity for people to break out poverty, rather than following the typical pattern.”