[Natfinwellness] Universities with mandatory (or nearly mandatory) financial education

[Ann House]

Hi Susie, et al,

I am the coordinator of our student money management center at the University of Utah. We are a 4-year public school with a student enrollment of about 32,500. We do not mandate financial education because our administration doesn't see the necessity. We have a tiny default rate on federal loans, well below the national average. Of course, we all know that the data about default rates is only part of the picture.

I had to look to other indicators of student wellness to get any political power. When we looked at our data, we found that our graduation rates were low and of those who do graduate, it takes an average of 6 years for a 4-year degree. Many of our students drop out for a time. We found that 80% of our students work, most of that 80% working 30 hours a week or more.

In response, my financial center is focusing on retention and graduation. Because of this, we are making strides in getting personal financial education a part of several programs, such as Welcome Week events, Parent & Family, TRiO, Women's Resource Center, the athletics department, and Financial Aid.

Examples: My work with Financial Aid this year will  be an initiative to get more students to fill out their FASFA. We have a very low rate of students who apply for federal financial aid. My hope is with more students applying for aid, their workload may be reduced, allowing them to focus on school rather than jobs. Students with TRiO are required to visit our office as part of a class and we present at their math classes. We also teach their required financial education class. The Women's Resource Center requires us to visit with their students before they can receive a scholarship.

So, the short answer is, while I have been unsuccessful in getting financial literacy required campus-wide, I have been fairly successful when using our school's particular issues to become integrated into existing programming. But there is still a lot to do!

Best-

Ann C. House, MS, CPFC, CEPF
Coordinator, Personal Money Management Center
The University of Utah
Olpin Student Union Building
200 S. Central Campus Dr., #317
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
801-585-3886 (Office)
www.personal-money-management.utah.edu<http://www.personal-money-management.utah.edu/>
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From: Natfinwellness [mailto:natfinwellness-bounces at lists.osu.edu] On Behalf Of Susie Jacobs
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2015 10:03 AM
To: National Financial Wellness Listserv (natfinwellness at lists.osu.edu)
Subject: [Natfinwellness] Universities with mandatory (or nearly mandatory) financial education

Good morning,

Do any of your schools require financial education for students in some form?  Or does anyone incorporate it into programming in such a way that most students receive it in some form?

I am especially interested in 4-year public U's with FTE around 30,000 or so, but would like to hear from anyone who is doing this.

Thank you for your help.

Susie Jacobs
Manager, Communications
Bursar's Office
University of Colorado Boulder
T 303 735 0817
F 303 492 1017
Online Bursar's Office<http://bursar.colorado.edu/>
Social @CUBoulder<https://twitter.com/CUBoulder>

[BeBoulder_Email_Signature-1]

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