1. Spring Conference April 9 – 11, 2018
Effective Cross-Cultural Communication to Recruit and Retain a Diverse Student Body
Presenters: Robert Muhammad, Financial Aid Director-Winston Salem State University
Michael O’Grady, Client Services, Financial Aid Services, Atlanta Georgia
Spring Conference April 9 – 11, 2018

2. There is no list of Do’s and Don’t for Cultural Diversity!!!!
Looking at Multicultural Communication and Diversity
Looking at Multicultural Communication and Diversity in Financial Aid Offices
Looking at Multicultural Communication and Diversity in ”ASFAA’s.”

3. State of the Union in Higher Education
Good News- Stock market is up
Bad News –Most people don’t have significant stock holdings if any
Good News- Endowments are up
Bad News-–Most schools serving underserved populations have little or no endowments
Good News-– States are rebounding from the recession
Bad New– They are not making up for the divestment of the last 10 years
Good News—Some financial aid process are becoming better (PPY)
Bad News– Federal Student loans remain expensive and pre-paid refund cards might restrict certain uses of refunds

4. Winter is Coming
Traditional student enrollment will continue to decline
Schools aren’t adapting fast enough to understand the needs of non-traditional students
Enrollment patterns are becoming less linear
52 percent of private schools, and 44 percent of public schools did not make their enrollment goals (Chronical of Higher Education)
Large decline in birth rates starting with the recession will reduce the available college age population by 15% by (Nathan D. Grawl, author of “Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education.”)

5. Not only will some regions see flat or declining graduation numbers, the new arrivals on our college campuses will be increasingly nonwhite, first generation, and low income. Chronical of Higher Education, December 2016
Traditional Students
Non-Traditional
Reputation of School
Convenience and Amenities
Quality of Faculty
Flexible Scheduling
School Look and Feel
Tutoring Available
Social Life

6. Impact on Financial Aid Offices
“Why do we have to work so hard making poor people prove they are poor….” Anyomous financial aid director
Manual verification workload increase due to seemly lower resourced households and extended family member flux in household size
Increase phone calls
Increase in “debt relief” scam companies charging students to change loan repayment programs

7. FTE = FTE
Envisaging the challenges of recruiting and retaining a diverse student body including different generation IS your job
Schools unable to make enrollment goals will disappear
“This is how we always have done it” is a key to unemployment

8. Real Reasons Students Leave Higher Education
From: The Cost of College Attrition at Four Year Colleges & Universities, EPI Policy Perspectives, Feb. 2013

9. Leveraging Technology for Better Customer Service
Transfer work-load to where interpersonal skills are needed
Reduce rote tasks
24/7
Institution can become bilingual
Financial Education
Mitigate budget cuts
Go Green
Use analytics as your GPS for default management

10. Spring Conference April 9 - 12, 2017

11. Model of Communication
Sender Encoder Decoder Receiver

12. Don’t ZZZZZ on Generation Z
Also called the Homeland Generation, iGeneration, Delta Generation
Millennials
Z Generation overview—
No American Dream
47% Greatly concerned about student debt
36% Worried about affording college
Expectations? Immediate provision of goods and services

13. Abstractive Associative
To do To be
Linear Non-linear
Monochronic Polychronic
Nuclear family Extended Family

14. College “Culture Shock” & Veteran’s PTSD/I Awareness
Introduced by 1954 by Kalvervo Oberg
Normally a student blames his or her “financial aid” as the reason for leaving school.
Difficulty in assimilating to new culture and environment
Anxiety, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion
Phases: Honeymoon Phase - Negotiation Phase - Adjustment Phase (things become “normal”) - Reverse Culture Shock

15. Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/Injury (PTSD/I) continued…
One in five veterans will experience re- entry issues or possibly PTSD/I
Approximately 200,000 women served in Afghanistan and Iraq
23% to 33% of women veterans report experiencing “MST” of which 42% will acquire PTSD

16. Please visit them and let them know how much you appreciate it.
NCASFAA would like to thank our Professional Affiliates for their support.
Please visit them and let them know how much you appreciate it.
Spring Conference April 9 – 11, 2018