While I agree that students should be able to use financial aid to cover
their "cost of attendance" it disturbs me that some of them use grant money
(not loans) to purchase high priced items that really cannot be considered
essential to their education, then they take food stamps (about $285 per
month for a single student) to subsidize their cost of living.  If they use
loan money, money which they will pay back to the government, that's fine.
Using 'free' grant money to do the same is, as far as I'm concerned,
unethical.

All of this is especially disturbing to me since some adult students who
return to school after an absence of some years find it difficult to get
adequate help because of their (sometimes) former standard of living.  In
the meantime, there are single students who appear to squander the funds
that they are entitled to for educational purposes.

First, and probably last, time to contribute to the Raven discussion!

Connie Cloud
Adult Services



At 10:32 AM 5/17/01 -0400, Jonathan Looney wrote:
>At 08:39 AM 5/17/01 -0400, Linda Hobart wrote:
>
>>Jonathan,
>>
>>I've heard some very disturbing stories from "financial aid" students.
>>Such as:  they get so much money "over and above" what their education
>>costs them each semester that they use the excess (sometimes excesses of
>>more than a thousand dollars!!) to buy furniture for their apartments or
>>new tires for their cars, etc.).
>
>Transportation costs and rent are also considered part of every
>institution's "Cost of Attendance". These are considered to be
>"non-institutional" costs, as they aren't paid directly to the university,
>but are still considered legitimate educationally related costs. I don't
>think we could give students money to rent an apartment, but tell them they
>have to sleep on the floor. ;-)
>
> I've heard this from 'several' students
>>now who were receiving financial aid, and they were bragging about how much
>>money they get just to go to school!  Isn't there some way the university
>>could just pay the university for their expenses, or require receipts for
>>expenses, instead of just handing these checks over to the students who
>>then use the excess for what it wasn't intended for?
>>
>Many of the students who receive money beyond what their tuition, books,
>and dorm cost are taking out student loans to accomplish this. There are
>some extremely bright students that have large scholarships and some
>extremely needy students with large grants, but more than half of the
>students that graduated last week had student loans while they were here.
>Students do still need money to eat, put gas in their cars, pay rent, etc.
>I'm sure my friends in the Bursar's Office would love to hold students'
>financial aid checks and only give them money when they brought in receipts.
>
>Linda, I'm sure there are some students that abuse the system. However,
>it's impossible to monitor what students are spending their money on once
>they have received their funds.
>
>There was an interesting article in the "USA Today" recently that said the
>main problem with financial aid was not corruption or inefficiency, but a
>lack of federal funds to keep up with the escalating costs of higher
>education. Unfortunately for Tennessee students, we keep passing along the
>burden to the students (13% increase possible in overall fees if my
>calculator is working correctly) since the state won't/can't give us the
>money we need to keep this place running. This will mean more and more of
>our students are forced to borrow to pay their way through college.
>
>Linda, I appreciate the concerns you raise. The U.S. Dept. of Education
>does not permit us to award students funds beyond their cost of attendance.
>But this cost of attendance does include items such as food,
>transportation, rent, etc.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>Jonathan Looney
>Director - Student Financial Aid
>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>