student financial services

Unbeknownst to most of us, the Student Financial Services Office (SFSO) and the Office of Admission have decided to slash financial aid for incoming international students. This decision is appalling, and deserves reconsideration.

“We are giving more financial aid to international students than to our own,” one administrator crassly put it. Last time I checked, “our own” is the body of Christian believers, not the citizens of a given country. (Not even the US Army War College or West Point is that parochial.)

Inti Martinez-Aleman '07 — Inti Martinez-Aleman ’07

This is a matter of equity and justice. Let’s look at a real example, a Honduran prospective student. What used to be a $15-20,000 financial aid package is now meagerly $8,000. That means this Honduran would have to shell out at least $28,000 every year—upfront cash!—which is enough to make a 50% down payment for a comfy house; in a four-year’s worth, one can get a decent 30-year retirement.

US citizens can get federal aid for their education, yet that concept is limited or nonexistent in countries like Honduras. Consider this country’s situation: the exchange rate is 20 Lempiras to 1 US dollar; the minimum wage is $2 per hour; you can buy a small home with $36,000—the Houghton annual price tag.

If we want Houghton to increase enrollment and diversity, cutting aid to foreigners is not the brightest idea. Currently, Houghton students are 96 percent US/Canadian and 94 percent White. This is virtually off the charts amongst American colleges and universities. With the misguided (at best) or jingoistic (at worst) “our own” parlance, these percentages might reach 100. Hooray.

What would our Founder think of this? Some suggest he’d send the Administration and Board of Trustees packing. Frieda Gillette and Kay Lindley put it differently in And You Shall Remember: the Houghton Charter expressed the goal of establishing and maintaining “…a seminary for the purpose of conferring a thorough education without regard to sex or nationality.” (emphasis added)

The Administration’s focus now is to enroll fifteen foreign students who are able to pay at least 80 percent of college tuition and fees; this is labeled as “full paying.” The goal is admirable and achievable, for which I have personally volunteered to try to get more Hondurans of this caliber for Houghton. The reality, however, is that most Christians from the Global South are not affluent.

Higher education institutions that take diversity and inclusion seriously have various endowed scholarships for international students, who collectively get hundreds of thousands of dollars to study in the US, paying close to nothing out of pocket. With the same vehemence and extent Houghton will raise millions for the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex and renovating the Paine Science Building, it can also raise money to fund international student education. But it doesn’t.

Thom Kettelkamp and I were briefed on this matter by SFSO and Admission officials. They believe this policy will be temporary; once enrollment increases, it will be gone. Permanent or temporary, this policy runs diametrically opposite to our Mission, Philosophy, Charter, history and every other good thing Houghton is known for.

Say Houghton decided to slash financial aid for non-Wesleyan students, because they are not “our own,” they don’t pay enough, and there’s a limited budget. Wouldn’t we all be irate? Wouldn’t enrollment decrease dramatically? Of course, even if the cuts were temporary. For some reason, however, a similar red flag wasn’t raised when this anti-foreign decision was made.

For me, “our own” are Christian believers, regardless of nationality, denomination, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, bodily ability, socioeconomic class, etc. As a Christian college, we attract students of all denominations, but the fastest growing Christian population in the US or in the rest of the world is not middle-class, rural, Evangelical America. To increase enrollment from domestic and international Christian circles, which are the most numerically promising sources of students, Houghton needs to cater to them. If we are going to pretend to care about diversity and inclusion, let’s do the job right. And cutting aid to foreigners won’t help.

Houghton campus is finally starting to thaw and that means a season of preparing for finals, getting ready for Mayterm, graduation and most importantly- letting loose on the long-awaited summer. However, this time of year also marks another season: that of readying ourselves for the upcoming financial school year. FAFSAs are completed and packages for both incoming and returning students are rolling out the doors of the financial aid office.

Courtesy of http://springflingcny.wordpress.com/

This year timing is especially important because it marks a new policy change for The Student Financial Services Office at Houghton College. Students have been receiving emails regarding this policy change- the introduction of EBilling which keeps us in-line with Federal Regulations regarding tuition overload; SALT, which will help students understand their financial responsibilities, enforcement of Church Match deadlines, and a comprehensive checklist to ensure all students are financially registered before returning to campus next year.

In previous years Houghton has given much grace when it comes to financial registration. Over the years we have seen this result in frustrating situations for our students. Students arrive on campus excited for a new semester and quickly become involved in academics, activities and friends. The last thing they want is to add financial strain to their lives. For that reason the new policy will strictly enforce that a student must be paid in full before he or she arrives on campus in August.

The process to be financially registered has not changed dramatically. Students will receive their tuition bills in July. Bills will be due August 16th. Students will be expected to pay the bill by that date. This means that any alternative payment plans and loan applications should already be in place and approved. After August 16th it will then be too late to apply for loans or make other arrangements.

Until a student formulates and communicates a plan in conjunction with SFSO to pay their bill, their housing key will be withheld, a stop put on their account, and their meal plan frozen. The intent of this is to alleviate the frustration and stress that accompanies long overdue bills.

If the student has a special circumstance where the usual payment plans and methods are not possible, they must communicate this with SFSO so that an acceptable alternative payment method can be decided upon before the 16th of August.

Once a student has reached a $0.00 balance on their account, an email will be sent confirming this. The email will act as financial clearance to return to campus, move into their housing and attend classes.

The hope is that through this strict financial policy, the billing process will be easier and smoother for both our students and the institution. Our intention is to engage with families and work through their plans at earlier dates so that the burdens of finance do not linger over the heads of students as a new semester starts. In addition SFSO will be able to proceed efficiently and without the fear of financial dismissal of students we feel should not have to leave our campus prematurely. Moving forward we are optimistic about the new policy and we are looking forward to August where we will find all students financially registered and ready to start a fresh year of academics, activities and friends.