O'Leary: We are Aid Administrators First Whose Purpose is to Help Students
May 28, 2009
The following op-ed by Eileen O'Leary, assistant vice president for student financial services, appeared on InsideHigherEd.com in response to an article titled "Counterpoint: Why We Choose Direct Lending" by Tim Wendt, director of financial aid and veteran services at Parkland College.
The financial aid directors who have responded to counter Mr. Spiers are right on the money - literally and figuratively. This whole issue is not about FFELP or DL. It's about students. Those who know me understand that I have been a long-time supporter of the Direct Loan program, for the reasons stated by Tim Wendt and for many more as well. DL is now a mature, strong, and proven program with lower defaults than its counterpart and simpler administration for schools. It is a viable option for student loan delivery and collections.
The argument about "government profits from direct lending" is a red herring. The issue is whether the government should pay a middleman to do something it does very well itself at a lower cost or shift those dollars to fund students instead. Money is limited and it's time to decide that taxpayer dollars spent on higher education financial aid should actually be spent on students, not middlemen.
I believe that we as financial aid administrators must step back, step up and remember WHY we are aid administrators - not to support the lending industry because they are our long-time friends and colleagues, not to be proponents of a loan delivery system because we are comfortable with it - we are aid administrators first whose purpose is to help students.
The Obama budget proposal will do just that. It will add up to $94 BILLION over ten years to the Pell Grant Program to help the needy students we see every day who struggle and borrow too much to achieve their dream of a higher education which benefits not only them, but our country as a whole. In fact, some of the current increase to Pell that our students are now receiving will expire shortly and the cliff effect will cause decreases to the maximum Pell. The Obama budget proposal will counteract that and not only save the Pell funding they currently have, but will significantly increase it over time.
I urge all financial aid administrators, regardless of our politics, to remember the students across from our desks. I expect that they would choose higher, more stable Pell Grants over lender profits and continuation of the status quo.
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