Students lament new aid policy

The controversy arose when the University implemented a form, called the CSS/Profile, that will make noncustodial parents of incoming freshmen responsible for contributing to their tuition, thus driving down the students’ financial aid packages.

While administrators concede that the form, called the CSS/Profile, may cause financial aid complications for some students with absentee parents, they argue that the form’s in-depth assessment of a family’s financial circumstances should lead to more accurate, and hopefully more generous, financial aid packages overall.

Still, many students have expressed outrage at the policy’s threat to students with absentee parents.

Rese Fox, the Michigan Progressive Party’s candidate for MSA president, has promised to fight the form if elected.

“How can we expect so many noncustodial parents to open their checkbooks for their children when they haven’t even opened up their lives for them?” Fox said at a meeting of the University Board of Regents Feb. 17.

Fox supports an MSA resolution urging administrators to eliminate the profile’s noncustodial parent questionnaire and to work with students to develop a more equitable financial aid policy.

But administrators say the policy will only adversely affect a small fraction of students with noncustodial parents.

According to Pam Fowler, director of the Office of Financial Aid, about 10 percent of financial aid applicants at the University have noncustodial parents.

Fowler said the financial aid office may make individual exceptions for students whose parents are estranged, unavailable or unable to contribute. She said some exemptions have already been granted for incoming freshmen.

Fowler said students who have had no contact with their noncustodial parent for a number of years may also be granted exceptions to excuse their noncustodial parent from contributing to tuition. “Our goal is not to make this extremely difficult for students,” she said.

In order to obtain such an exemption, students would have to make a financial aid appeal and provide documentation that provided evidence of their situation.

Fowler would not outline specific ways to provide that documentation because she said each situation is decided on a case-by-case basis.

“Our financial aid staff are sensitive to the financial realities unique to each and every one of our students, and will carry out the policy on an individual basis,” University President Mary Sue Coleman said in an e-mail interview.

But students continue to campaign against the form.

LSA freshman Kenneth Baker, who is running for an MSA representative seat as an independent candidate, said he is vehemently opposed to assessing a contribution from noncustodial parents because he thinks it will discourage students from attending the University.

“We should be encouraging students of single parents to succeed,” said Baker, who comes from a single parent.

MSA Rep. Mat Brener said the policy presents difficulties lower-income students.

“This is putting an overwhelming burden on the student from a single-parent, low-income household,” he said.

Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs, contended that because the University does not currently use the new form, it is not able to offer aid awards that are as fair as at other schools. Some strong students have chosen to attend the more than 200 schools that already use the form, he said.

“If Michigan is going to compete with other colleges on several levels, don’t you think we would want to compete in terms of our ability to provide financial aid to our students?” Monts said.

Monts maintains that the University wants to assist students who may be hurt by the policy.

“Any student who falls through the cracks – we hop to the task to help that student,” he said.

Nicole Stallings, who is running for MSA president with the Students 4 Michigan party, also said the problem with the policy lies with students who are put in a catch-22 because their noncustodial parents will be assessed a contribution but may be unwilling to pay it.

If Stallings were an incoming freshman, she would have been affected by the change in policy.

Her parents divorced when she was 5. While she occasionally contacts her father, he does not contribute to her education.

She describes his financial support as “hit-and-miss.”

“It’s not something I can count on, and not something I want my education to ride on,” Stallings said.

But according to federal policy, parental unwillingness to contribute to a child’s education is not considered a valid reason to reduce an expected family contribution.

Fowler said that since this is true for two-parent families, noncustodial parents must be treated the same way.

“If their parent is alive and well and working every day, (the student) will have to find some other means to find what they need to stay here,” Fowler said.

Administrators maintain that the form will also allow financial aid officers to treat students more equally by asking specific questions so that parts of a family’s income are not overlooked.

Fowler said that the FAFSA – previously the only form used by the financial aid office – has been streamlined over the past five years in order to make it more accessible to parents with less education.

But as it has become simpler, she said, it has also provided problems for students whose financial situations are not accurately represented by their family’s adjusted gross income.

“We want to treat everyone the same, and the FAFSA just doesn’t do that,” Fowler said.

Both sides now

What some students have said about the change in policy:

“How can we expect so many non-custodial parents to open their checkbooks for their children when they haven’t even opened their lives for them?”
Rese Fox, Michigan Student Assembly presidential candidate

“We should be encouraging students of single parents to succeed.”
Kenneth Baker, Michigan Student Assembly representative candidate

What some administrators have said:

“If their parent is alive and well and working every day, (the student) will have to find some other means to find what they need to stay here.”
Pam Fowler, financial aid director

“If Michigan is going to compete with other colleges on several levels, don’t you think we would want to compete in terms of our ability to provide financial aid to our students?” Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs