On Wednesday, April 12, the sounds of laughing students and clinking dishes echoed through Allison Dining Hall – but inside the PARC dining hall, the tone was more serious, as about 45 students and faculty participated in a dialogue about undergraduate financial aid.
The panel included associate provost Mike Mills, registrar Jackie Casazza, Undergraduate Financial Aid office director Angela Yang, Undergraduate Financial Aid associate director Brian Drabik and Student Accounts associate director Darryl O’Daniel.
Vice President of Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin started off the discussion with a request for a moment of silence for Mohammed Ramzan, the freshman who died in a rowing accident this Monday.
After this, Weinberg assistant dean Constance Wright moderated a discussion, first asking commonly-heard questions from previous dialogues and then opening it up to anyone who wanted to approach the microphone.
Some questions involved the effect of students’ financial status on long-term academic and living issues, and what the University is doing to solve them.
McCormick senior Yakira Mirabito asked the panel a series of questions on textbook affordability, noting that the current lack of early access to syllabi and inability to determine which books will actually be necessary creates a disadvantage for low-income students. A CAPS staff member Rosie Magaña asked for an explanation of how mental health insurance could be made affordable and understandable for students already dealing with difficult disorders.
Director of Student Enrichment Services Kourtney Cockrell attended the dialogue and said afterward that navigating insurance was the most pressing issue that Northwestern’s financial aid staff should fix. She stated that it was unfair to expect students to do their own research on whether they needed insurance and more reasonable that the University take control of the process.
“We can do more to shift the burden,” Cockrell said.
In response to these concerns, Wright said that Searle has added more staff to help students search for and negotiate with health insurance providers, and Casazza acknowledged that departments had to work more closely with faculty about the timing of their syllabi.
More procedural questions included how to navigate health insurance, what happens to aid if a family’s financial situation worsens and how to request aid if one is staying for more than 12 quarters.
Themes that emerged were information accessibility and face-to-face contact. Some students and staff expressed confusion over where to find information on financial aid questions. The panel members repeatedly urged students to visit the financial aid office so that the students could find out more about resources and advocate for their particular needs.
In closing, Wright reminded the audience to take care of their mental health, in a year in which Northwestern has lost four students.
“It is not a threat to your greatness to get the support you need,” Wright said.
Mirabito, who is involved in the Quest Scholars program for low-income and first-generation college students, appreciated the high attendance of faculty at the event and felt that the panel was listening to her concerns. However, she said she was still concerned about class affordability as well as the financial and racial disparity in on-campus housing.
“It’s a known fact that all the minorities are in Plex” while the rich, white students leave for Greek houses, she said.
Ultimately, Mirabito wanted more frequent dialogues to occur and believed that students should have more say in the opening questions. She said that faculty and administrators could not fully understand the complex issues facing low-income students through the limited number of questions in the session.
“That [understanding] doesn’t happen over an hour and a half,” Mirabito said.
Wright said the ideas brought up in the dialogue will be discussed in future meetings.