College of the Desert welcoming students under new tuition program

College of the Desert welcomed about 1,000 new students for the first day of school Monday through it’s inaugural plEDGE program, the school’s free tuition program.

See Jeremy Chen reporting live in Palm Desert at COD this morning

The program provides free tuition to incoming students who graduated from local high schools in the spring and attend College of the Desert full-time this school year.

“We do not want the cost of college to prevent students from pursuing a higher education,” said Superintendent/President Joel L. Kinnamon, Ed.D. He announced the plEDGE program during his State of the College to the public in January. “This program helps remove some of the economic barriers to entering the first year of college while also providing critical guidance, skills and support that is essential to students achieving their educational and career goals,” he said. According to the college, the program wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything extra. About 75 percent of College of the Desert students qualify for some sort of financial aid, including PELL grants and Board of Governors (BOG) fee waivers. All incoming plEDGE students apply for those programs as part of the admissions process. COD staff said donors in the desert community fund the difference.