I got into the financial aid business in an unusual way. I did not want to be the director of financial aid (DFA). I had been planning to study for ordained ministry. That didn’t work out, and I returned to my alma mater to do public administration work. I was able to interview graduate assistants, one for undergraduates and one (over two different categories) for financial aid.
I thought I would end up working in local government while also teaching urban studies and political science. But one day, the DFA I was directly working for as a graduate assistant put the Chapter IV rules of management skills in front of me and told me to read them because I would need them. I looked at him like he was nuts. We had never had a discussion about the student aid administration. But later I began to realize that when I pursued another I would use my work in the teaching system and that the field is actually a kind of ministry.
The Velcro dynamic—if it goes on, it sticks—is an oft-discussed issue of how student aid workers are hired. Unfortunately, this story is also evidence of the lack of institutional commitment to strategic employment in this field. There is no academic sector that provides a clear feed into student welfare activities. There are fields that greatly value student help: accounting, counseling, education, finance, public administration (my field). But nothing quite prepares one for the many dynamics a leading student aid director will face.
With this in mind, here are my suggestions for the budding DFA:
Understand your system and its management capabilities.
The financial aid director really needs to understand the institution’s compliance status as the director’s designated Title IV administrator. With so much change underway in student aid administration due to changes in organizational structures, the impact of the COVID pandemic and, more recently, the politics and organization of the federal student aid process, there is a real need for strategic thinking. managing student aid and ensuring that it is true to its core values while also complying with laws and regulations. The director of financial aid must be the advocate, the facilitator, for this to happen.
Trust your government agency colleagues, and, yes, auditors.
Most of the people I’ve met from government regulatory agencies and auditing firms are truly dedicated to helping people on campus. They are not the enemy; and they are not perfect. In fact, there are times when you can teach them a thing or two (yes, I have the receipts). However, they can often help identify resources that can help you. They can be your friend, especially if you have problems in your institution with being heard about compliance issues. They can become part of your network.
Build a network.
It would be great if everyone working in this business had a professional mentor. From my job as a graduate assistant, I knew who to call when I needed help—my advisor, other senior administrators at my alma mater, people in state government. This list later grew to include friends at the US Department of Education, and colleagues at various other higher education institutions. In some cases, I “called”: I wrote to someone out of the blue and asked for help—sometimes these were people I knew from their relationship with my counselor, sometimes it was someone I thought would simply accept help. investigation. It was hard to do that, to be a nobody. In most cases, the answer was yes. Most of the people in charge of student aid that I asked to help them were willing to do that because they realize that this business is complicated and can be lonely. So, pick up the nerve and make that call or send that email. And if you get a call or email about this, respond to it.
Use listservs, but be strategic about it.
Save sensitive issues for direct communication with your colleagues. Consider whether you can find the answer on your own. Internet search engine can be your perfect friend. A co-worker once sarcastically replied to a post, “Let me Google that.” I admit I laughed, as I understood the feeling. I’ve used the finaid-l listserv for 30 years, and my reputation in student aid circles is tied to it. I get, “Oh, I know you from finaid-l” all the time. I will take it. It’s a valuable resource, just like other listservs. In addition to getting answers, listservs help you build a network.
Learn.
I mean this seriously. Too many people in this business look forward to “getting handouts” from webinars or conference presentations rather than reading the details of a law or regulation (or especially the development thereof). However Federal Student Aid Handbook traditionally a great teaching resource, its reformatting in recent years—bad and uninviting—has weakened its effectiveness. Read books and articles about student aid development as a profession or issues in student aid management such as those by Rupert Wilkinson or Elizabeth A. Duffy and Idana Goldberg, as well as the excellent book published this year by Stephen J. Burd on the enrollment management industry, and, importantly specifically, two books by Anthony Abraham Jack that focus on inequality in higher education student services.
Research by higher education economists Sandy Baum, Susan Dynarski and Judith Scott-Clayton is worth reading. Writings on social issues in the United States from the likes of Anthony P. Carnevale, Matthew Desmond, Kathryn J. Edin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sara Goldrick-Rab, Stephanie Land, and Caitlin Zaloom greatly inform student aid policy and administration. And key to your job as a DFA is understanding the regulatory and rulemaking process. You have to find out Federal Register free daily email and understand publications. Rebecca Natow’s recent books on higher education governance are important reading.
Read more related content.
Ask your business office to give you access to the NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) website through institutional membership. Ask the same of whoever can handle your institution’s AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) and NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) memberships. Read the content of the American Council on Education. DO NOT depend on one source of professional association. Promote content from outside student aid organizations, such as AACRAO’s Registrar 101 program and their FERPA resources, NACAC’s The Basics of College Admissions Counselingor NACUBO’s Bursar Fundamentals and Student Financial Services program, and get your co-workers to do the same. Limiting yourself solely to the student aid bubble is, frankly, unusual. Avoid this because doing so will help to avoid the unfair crime that unfortunately goes on in higher education, when people see student aid on your CV and mistakenly think it’s the only thing you can do.
Read many news outlets.
I have long relied on news aggregators, and of course, professional organizations also have their own news broadcasts related to topics of interest. I prefer the one from SHEEO (Association of State Higher Education Officers) because it provides links to research and government reports that the organization’s news blasts don’t really provide. Social media is very useful for staying on top of the news; I also used social media to connect with cold people. The higher education economics social media has been very helpful and responsive to me in this way. Every higher education economist I’ve ever come in contact with has responded—which, frankly, and the feeling that behavioral economics is an important factor in helping students, is why I became interested in that field during my career.
Seek investment and commit to organizational development.
Here’s the wrong truth: Title IV of the law requires administrative capacity and among the many requirements for administrative capacity is that of having an adequately trained workforce. It is your responsibility to constantly remind your institution of this requirement and the fact that auditors and program reviewers will check compliance. Create a list of programs from the Department of Education, states, professional organizations and other sources that will help you and your staff not only with program and administration but with practical staffing needs. Investing in your professional development while developing the work of the organization are complementary requirements because, and I mean this with respect, high-level administrators of higher education often consider student assistance as arcane, very specific and small, and often do not want to touch. its details with a ten meter pole.
As someone whose first professional goal was a vocation to the church, in many respects I view financial aid work as a call to speak truth to power about ethical decision-making and unnecessary higher education funding choices. Many people in student aid administration are simply afraid to talk about how politics and policy have placed them uncomfortably in the middle, and to talk about what they really need. I regret the idea that seems to dominate in the administration of higher education that the help of students is more focused on systems, programs and portals, since the increase of electronic tools has had the effect of reducing direct communication with students; this concept sidelined the commitment to counseling, which should be a central consideration of the student service and required by law. I strongly believe that we need to recapture this at work. The DFA must be an advocate for policy development and student-centered secondary school financial services.
Source link
