U.S. Sen.-elect Barack Obama is heading to Washington, where he hopes to increase the availability of financial aid to students at NIU and other universities.

During his campaign, Obama vowed to reform the system of government student loans and Pell grants.

The value of Pell grants can vary, said Linda Dersch, a senior assistant director of NIU student financial aid. The minimum is $400, the maximum is $4,050 per grant.

In real terms, this means that students today receive $700 less than students did 30 years ago, Obama said during his campaign.

“I will fight to increase the number of available Pell grants and to raise the maximum grant to $5,100,” he said.

Pell grants are rewarded based on a federal formula. Pell grants are awarded to undergraduates whose expected family contribution is less than $3,850, Dersch said.

During the 2003-04 school year, about 5,100 NIU students received Pell grants, she said. At NIU, 70 percent of undergraduates receive some type of financial aid.

This amounted to about $136 million being awarded during the 2002-03 school year.

To pay for the plan, Obama proposed reforming the way loans are administered to students who qualify for them, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

The current system pays large subsidies to the banks that administer the loans for the government, Vietor said.

Obama wants all student loans to be administered directly to the students, Vietor said. If he accomplishes this, the government could save $4.5 billion per year, he said.

This would enable the funding of the Pell grant increase Obama proposed during his campaign.