Enrollment and financial aid topics at curators meeting

By Joey Soto

Published Sept. 5, 2008

Many college students struggle to manage their finances and student loan debt, but the UM system Board of Curators said they want to make being fiscally responsible easier for Missouri students.

The UM system's governing board met Thursday at the UM-Kansas City to discuss financial aid and enrollment.

Nikki Krawitz, UM system vice president of finance and administration, opened with a presentation about the developments in financial aid in Missouri. Krawitz said research showed that during the past five years the total amount of financial aid given out has increased by 38 percent.

Despite this influx of funding, an increasing number of average-income undergraduates remain dependant on need-based loans to pay for their education. Low-income undergrads receive the most grants, but also face the most loans after graduation.

Curator David Wasinger said he's concerned about the students who faced difficulty getting a loan and proposed some sort of early education to stimulate financial responsibility.

"Educate students about the pluses and minuses and also financial pitfalls or perils that might be involved in taking out loans or credit card debt," Wasinger said.

The insight gained would presumably keep students from racking up credit card debt with compounding interest rates nearing 20 percent annually, Wasinger said. Curator Marion Cairns agreed that students should pay more attention to financial responsibility, but she said she believes it should start before students are in school.

"I think that begins at home," Cairns said. "It should be done even in high school to start to encourage students not to incur so much debt."

As Wasinger and Cairns advocate better fiscal education, recent changes in funding across the state might already be helping.

In fiscal year 2007 only 3 percent of all financial aid was administered at the state level. But in 2008, the new Access Missouri Program grants replaced the old Gallagher and Guarantee grants.

The change nearly quadrupled the number of awards given out - from 2,510 to 8,213 - and increased the total amount of money rewarded to $12 million.

Krawitz said those changes might have already helped MU, as enrollment records were shattered this year.

"I think it's a combination of Access Missouri plus additional grant aid that campus has supplied to help students continue in their education," Krawitz said.

Ten enrollment marks were surpassed this year, most importantly the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 85.2 percent, Chancellor Brady Deaton said. Deaton said the overall quality of students was not affected by the larger-than-average quantity that flocked to MU this fall.

"Even with the growth, there was no loss in scholars," Deaton said. "Curators Scholars increased 8 percent."

Curators Scholars are a group of students who have above a 27 composite ACT score and are in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.

Several curators praised MU for its efforts to bring in more students each year.

"You guys are doing an excellent job and the electricity in the air is attributed to your staff's efforts," Wasinger said.

Although more scholarship money is now available, Krawitz said she and the curators would continue to look for ways to improve the UM system.

"Access and affordability continue to be a challenge that we're still looking for ways to solve," she said.