President Obama focused welcome attention in his State of the Union address on the rising cost of a college education and the need to both expand federal financial aid and hold institutions accountable for affordability and student success. For a land-grant university like Colorado State — created to ensure broad educational access for people at all income levels — this is a core element of our mission, and we welcome the chance to participate in a national conversation about access and accountability.

At $6,307 in annual resident tuition, the cost to attend CSU is below the average cost of comparable institutions around the country. CSU students graduate with a total student-loan debt load that is well below the national average, cut their risk of unemployment by more than half, and increase their lifetime earnings – returning nearly $10 to the state for each $1 invested in their education.

But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Like institutions across the country, we’ve seen dramatic increases in the demand for student aid, as families struggle in the face of economic hardship and the realization that a college degree is increasingly a requirement for entry into the workforce.