Ethics and Financial Aid

What’s Financial Aid, What’s Its Purpose, and Where Does It Come From? Ensure students have adequate financial resources to achieve their academic goals.

Stop Patsy Pellrunner? Enrolled in 15 units at CR. Qualifies for federal Pell grant. Receives 2 Pell checks totaling $2,500 by week 5 of fall. Planning to quit school and keep the money. Going to “run” with the Pell, leaving CR to pay the federal government back the $2,500. How would an ethicist respond to Patsy’s plan?

SAP: Completion and Deserving of Aid Satisfactory Academic Progress. Must complete at least 67% of registered courses to continue to be eligible for financial aid. 67% is minimum set by fed; could be set higher locally.

SAP: Does Anyone “Deserve” an Appeal? More than 70 units. GPA below 2.0. Completion rate <67%. “Extenuating Circumstances.” No appeals required. CR allows an appeal and secondary appeal every semester.

Ethically Managing Risk: Default Rate Cohort: 2 years of students at CR 3 years ago. Default of > % = F. F = Default Management Plan. No or failing default management plan = no aid at that college (no Pell, no loans, etc.) CR Default 2013 Default Rate: 29.9%

Ways of Managing Risk & Debt Encourage students to use credit cards? Encourage campus presence of credit card vendors and charge them a fee that can be used to pay back Pell runner debt? (think cig tax) D-Reg? Fed. requires some kind of counseling prior to receiving loan (can be online). Limit loan amounts?