Faculty Senate discusses student financial concerns

The average loan debt of University graduates exceeds the national average for public universities by $3,500, Anna Griswold, assistant vice provost for financial aid told the University Faculty Senate yesterday.

"The amount of scholarships we have at the undergraduate level is quite low compared to many of our peer institutions," Griswold said.

Griswold gave an informational report on the current state of student financial aid at the University. The intention of the report was to keep faculty abreast of student aid issues and inform faculty of University President Graham Spanier's endowment fund-raising plans, according to the senate agenda.

Starting this year, Spanier plans to initiate The Penn State Campaign, a fund raising initiative earmarked towards increasing scholarship and student aid money, according to the Faculty Senate agenda.

Reliable aid funding needs to come from endowments, Louis Geschwindner, chairman of the senate said. Spanier's plan to enlarge the University's endowment and focus on scholarship building is the way to effectively address the funding problem, he said.

But Griswold's report indicates that the number of students relying on financial aid has increased during the past three years while the percentage of available University scholarship money has decreased slightly. The entire tuition cost also has increased and continues to remain high.

In 1996-97, the University's average in-state tuition was $5,624, versus a national average of $2,975 for other public four year colleges and universities, according to Griswold's report.

Currently, 61 percent of undergraduate students receive financial aid and the vast majority of that aid is in the form of loans.

Parental loans have also dramatically risen during the past three years, Griswold said. Compared with 1992-93, parents of University students borrowed 300 percent more money in 1997-98, she said.

A shift away from federal funding and grants in favor of an increased student loan burden has characterized the trend in higher education during the past several years, Griswold said.

"The number of students we are seeing from the lower incomes is dropping off," she added.

Faculty members need to understand the realities of their students, Griswold said. Many students graduate late and do not perform their best in the classroom, simply because of financial difficulties, she said.

When students have to work two jobs to afford the credits they need, academics suffer, Griswold said.

The current financial aid problems are not only University centered, they also stem from state government, said Mike Platz, a member of the Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly.

"The office (of financial aid) is doing a pretty good job," said Platz (senior-chemical engineering). "(Even though) Pennsylvania chooses to put their money else where."