The Eagle's unscientific financial aid survey shows results that, while initially shocking, really are not that surprising. Of the 107 students surveyed, about half said the Office of Financial Aid failed to educate them about debt. A slightly lower number of respondents said they felt the staff at the office did not care about their well-being. Only 13 percent said they thought their financial aid counselors were helpful resources.
Despite the staggering numbers, the survey does not say that the Office of Financial Aid does nothing to educate students. The office has improved drastically over the last five years as a result of multiple CEIT initiatives, and it hosts mandatory programs throughout New Student Orientations over the summer. The biggest problem with this, though, is that by late June and July, most students who need to take out loans have already done so. This renders the programs themselves irrelevant for the most part. There is also a financial aid session during Freshman Day in April, but attendance is not required, and parents often attend in the place of their children.
Another big contributing factor to students' financial illiteracy is that when most first start school, their parents handle their finances. The parents fill out the financial aid paperwork and make the important calls while most of these students don't even have credit cards. Some responsibility should thus lie on parents and guardians to educate their children about loans and what they will eventually owe.
However, students need to be accountable for their own apathy. As most administrators said, students care more about registering for classes rather than keeping track of their loan payments. As boring and tedious as it may be, students need to be proactive about their finances and either go to their parents or advisers to talk about their options.
Instituting a personal-finance requirement for all students could be one way to address this issue. No matter how boring a class may be, the average student absorbs more from a class than from a 45-minute NSO session.
We agree with SG President Joe Vidulich's statement that every student should be required to meet with his or her financial aid adviser prior to attending their first class. More often than not, there is little to no interaction between students and their advisers, who are good resources perhaps despite what some students believe. Then again, most of the students surveyed also indicated their advisers were somewhat inaccessible, so maybe a demeanor change would be equally welcome.
Communication should also be less passive - ads and fliers are not sufficient ways to spread the word about loans and debt to students. Financial Aid used to go into dorms and host programs about these issues, but attendance has always been meager. A FAFSA help workshop also exists, but many students don't know it's there. There is only so much the office can do to spike interest, but it is not doing enough. It's almost a cop out to say that since no one shows up to these events they are not held. Speaking at the beginning or end of classes could be one way the office could promote and spread their information. Almost all freshmen have to take "College Writing," so targeting a class like that might be effective, too.
Of course, all of these outreach programs are contingent upon some sort of bureaucratic restructuring. As Ken's testimony reveals, the hassle of the "Bermuda Triangle" frustrates students and more than likely affects whether they use the office's resources or approach the office at all. And while, again, the university has made great strides by cross-training staff members and streamlining the phone system, among other reforms, more is needed. A one-stop shop would sufficiently reduce some of the bureaucracy by centralizing some of these unapproachable offices.
It would be great if Financial Aid could get students to be more interested in their personal finances, but it does come down to whether students want to make it a priority. As much as the office might try to educate students and get them to care, if they choose not to, there is not much the university can do about that. However, Financial Aid could do more to increase its visibility and transparency on campus, and hopefully, it will continue on the same trajectory it has for the last five years.
Editor's note: Traditionally, the editorial page editor writes staff editorials. But it is a conflict of interest for the editorial page editor to speak on behalf of the staff regarding an article he or she has written. As such, this staff editorial was written by Lauren Gardner, The Eagle's former editor in chief
