The University of Chicago announced last week that it will replace student loans with grants starting in Fall 2015, according to the U.S. News and World Report. The change will affect students that receive need-based aid and aims to reduce the number of students that need to apply for loans. Syracuse University should also review how it can reduce student debt in the future.

The University of Chicago has joined more than 50 colleges in the U.S. — including Yale, Harvard and Cornell University — that have pledged to eliminate or decrease the need for students to take out loans, according to U.S. News and World Report. SU is not among the colleges listed on projectonstudentdebt.org. While each university has different tactics to reduce student loans, the University of Chicago’s plan focuses on helping lower income students by replacing loans with grants.

Although providing more aid to students might not be practical for the university’s budget within the next few years, SU should investigate how it can reduce student loan debt.

SU has taken some measures to provide low-income students a chance to attend the university. The Posse program, despite the cuts made to it, provides students from specific cities around the country full scholarships to the university. SU also offers work-study and according to the U.S. News and World Report, offers students an average of $25,670 in need-based scholarships or grant awards.

More attention needs to be paid to the students who can only afford tuition by taking out student loans. An estimated 40 million Americans now have student loan debt, according to an analysis from credit bureau Experian released in September. SU should look into how it can reduce that number.

This is not a change the university will likely be able to implement within the short-term future. But in order to reduce the need for student loans, as well as better serve students in lower income households, the university should follow the lead of the 50 other universities that have pledged to reduce or eliminate student debt.