Most copies of the February issue of The Blue and White have been snatched up, but here’s looking forward to the March issue, on campus next week.  Today, managing editor Anna Bahr continues her three-part series on the experience of student debt at Columbia. To review the first piece, which focuses on taking out loans as an undergraduate, please click here, and look forward to the final installment, addressing debt at the School of General Studies, in the upcoming issue.

Illustration by Juliette Chen, CC ’16

Jean Pierre Salendres, CC ’14, applied to 15 universities. With the exception of Dartmouth, he checked off all of the Ivies on his Common Application. Of all his acceptance letters, only those from Columbia and University of Pennsylvania offered him financial aid—a surprisingly small handout from schools which publicly boast the magnanimity of their aid programs. Beyond the prestige, students hope for acceptance at these schools because of their nearly comprehensive coverage for undergraduates. But the generous aid boasted about in admissions pamphlets comes with an asterisk. Where American students are guaranteed a financially objective evaluation of their applications, international students have no such luck.

The principle behind need-blind admissions gestures toward affirmative action: it is intended to ensure socio-economic diversity, to address the growing income gap, and to “level the playing field” for disadvantaged applicants. Very few universities in this country offer any form of need-blind admission. Most that do are selective colleges with deep pockets; and most of these guarantee at least meeting “demonstrated need.” But it’s a pricey policy. Wesleyan University recently announced that it would end its need-blind admissions because of its high cost. Grinnell College plans to review its aid policies because its process is financially unsustainable.

More after the jump.

I’d borrow money from this guy

A tipster sent in data from a recent Wall Street Journal article about how graduates of arts-focused schools tend to rack up more debt. Here are the numbers for Columbia undergraduates:

Columbia University in the City of New York
Average price: $19,073
Graduation rate: 93%
Default rate: 3%
Average student loan at time of repayment: $12,500

Debt at Columbia is a bit of a perplexing topic, considering that the Financial Aid Department’s website states that “Students are expected to borrow $0 to attend Columbia.” Bwog’s sister/parent/long-lost-evil-twin publication, the Blue & White Magazine, is running a three-part installment on student debt at Columbia, the first of which is  about Columbia’s no-loan policy. The second installment will focus on debt for international undergrads and can be found in the February issue, on campus next week.

I-think-that’s-William-Pitt via Wikimedia

Financial Aid’s mascot

CCSC’s up to its old tricks again. Bwog sent Student Council Celebrator Maren Killackey to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. Here’s what she found:

Dean Marinaccio stopped by to discuss some of the reforms the Office of Financial Aid has undertaken since reviewing the results of their internal review aka that thing you kept getting emails about in the fall… of 2011. Despite the delays, the changes are proving effective:

• Many students have already experienced dramatically shorter wait times during walk-in hours now that they no longer have to wait for their particular aid officer
• There’s been an increase in responsiveness thanks to a new email system and four new staff members
• Communication between both students and other administrative offices has improved. For example, the number of students  with $1K in the hole who had been booted from registration fell impressively, from 850 to 48.

In the upcoming months, the OFA will continue its efforts to reach out to students, including working with the student-run Common Cents project to create more opportunities to learn about managing your own finances. Also, as head of Undergrad Admissions as well as Financial Aid, Dean Marinaccio expressed excitement about the uptick in admission applications, an emotion that graciously overshadowed any sense of complete and utter dread (So. Much. Paperwork). She also says the office will wait with bated breath the Fisher v. Texas decision, which, in addition to possibly rendering PrezBo irrelevant, would limit the information admissions personnel can use in their decisions to admit students. If you have any questions about fin aid or- heaven knows why- undergraduate admissions, you can reach Dean Marinaccio at jm996@columbia.edu.

Read on, read on in majesty

Doesn’t that look so much better than a stale bagel?

If you haven’t bought groceries in the last two weeks because Westside isn’t in Butler, you’re in luck. The Office of Financial Aid is hosting a “Meet, Eat, And Greet” tonight from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Satow Room. This time frame is also right before the library dinner-time turnover, so you may have slightly better luck in finding a seat when you return. Slightly. Regardless, go and eat something that’s not a weird Butler pastry (although if you must we can help you out there) while learning about things that may actually be more important than finals.

Lots of food via Wikimedia 

Provost Coatsworth

CAFA, the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid that governs CC/SEAS, has been made anew. It used to be under the Dean, but now it’s under the Provost. It used to have student reps, but now instead has professional school reps. There should be student reps on CAFA. Please make that happen, “student leaders.”

Not long ago, Coatsworth announced ”the [re-]formation” (Bwog’s addition) of the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid.

According to its charter, CAFA

offers guidance on how diversity—of personal experience, of academic interest, of non‐ academic achievement, of place of origin, of family background, of secondary school—should be considered in evaluation of applicants for their potential to contribute to and benefit from the undergraduate experience at Columbia [and] advises on financial aid policies that enable the achievement of admissions goals, and assesses the effectiveness of these policies in meeting educational objectives.

Why “re-formation”? Because CAFA existed before, and included student representatives. Not this time.

In 1992, CAFA Students were instrumental in killing a cost-cutting plan that would have ruined financial aid. Said CCSC ’92: “We are convinced that such policies would return us to the days when classism—and institutional racism—dictated the College’s policies on admission and financial aid.”

So why are there no student representatives in CAFA, despite history? Because of history, says Coatsworth. From Spec:

Coatsworth, though, said that “it isn’t normal for a provostial committee to have student representatives [...] I think it’s likely that we will not [add student members], because the main purpose of the committee is to have faculty advice for our long-term strategy”

And what does our own Deantini say? The three Columbia College senators met him and asked. Here’s what Eduardo Santana, CC ’13, told Bwog. Note the bolded language:

[W]hen the NROTC case came up last year, and we tried to get student representation, [Valentini said], “Yeah, of course, there should be a student on this board.” We go to him for CAFA, and he said, “No.” [...] This is really important, it’s just for the faculty.”

But what does it all mean? (Probably ill.).

Update, 8/15 1:30 pm: Deantini has emailed us back to explain why he decided to move Financial Aid and Admissions out of the Division of Student Affairs:

I wanted Admissions and Financial Aid reporting directly to me. Whom we admit to the College is the most important thing we do. And financial aid is equally important when it comes to building a student body. The Dean of the College should take direct responsibility for our admissions and financial aid policies and their implementation. Dean Goldfarb, I am sure, feels the same about SEAS.

Undergrad Admissions and Financial Aid are being rolled into one branch that will report directly to the offices of Deantini and Goldean from this point forward, reports Spec. Jessica Marinaccio, whose almighty Dean of Undergrad Admissions sig has graced acceptance letters since 2004, will now act as Dean of this combined FinAid/Admissions for CC and SEAS.

Spec adds that each enterprise will continue to have a separate staff underneath Marinaccio, and that both teams will be expanded.

The news doesn’t come as a complete shock; in mid-July, Deantini told Spec that one of his first orders of business as Dean Proper would be to move the financial aid and admissions offices out from under Division of Student Affairs, into his jurisdiction. Earlier this summer, former Dean of FinAid Laurie Schaffler resigned.

More notably, this appears to decentralize some power, moving control from the administration to the College. We last heard that Deantini supported moving College Fin Aid from A&S to the Provost —not to his (and Goldean’s) own offices. We’ll keep you posted as we poke around and find out more.

Trying way too hard to make the headline work via Wikimedia Commons

Barnard has a severe housing shortage. On Wednesday, residents learned that Plimpton rooms which in the spring were singles will this fall be doubles. Today, a student forwarded us an email from Barnard Res Life explaining that Barnard students returning from leave, and possibly transfers as well, may not get on-campus housing at all—may be forced into apartments, or the 92 St. Y, or the Brandon Residency for Women.

What does that mean for students returning from leave and transfers who are on financial aid? According to a commenter, “Barnard gives out housing grants to cover the cost of housing and meals. If you decide you don’t want to live on campus, that grant does not transfer over to cover tuition costs or is expendable for off-campus housing. You just lose 11g’s.”

We contacted the director of Barnard’s financial aid office as well as the associate dean and assistant director of Barnard Res Life; all three were out.

However, we did read the below on Barnard Res Life’s Off-Campus page. As of now, we’re unsure whether students technically “chose” to live off-campus by giving up their housing guarantee when they went on leave.

Please note that students who choose to live off-campus are subject to a “commuter” instead of a “residential” financial aid budget (which can result in a difference of $11,000 of available aid). Students who are thinking of living off-campus are strongly encouraged to contact the Financial Aid Office to discuss how it could affect their financial aid package.

And this sentence below adds up to a catch-22, at least for the transfer students:

[S]tudents receive a guarantee of housing only if they continue to live on-campus.

One nasty irony from another nook of Barnard Res Life’s site:

Barnard College considers the residential experience to be an integral part of a student’s total education. Students who live on campus have a more productive and more satisfying college experience than those who live off campus. Research over the past 40 years indicates that college students who live on campus are more likely to [do better in a bevy of ways].

We’re bothering more people over the phone and by email; hopefully we’ll get a statement from Barnard Res Life and Financial Aid today, rather than Monday.

N.B. On-campus housing is not guaranteed for Barnard students returning for leave or for transfer students.

Earlier this morning, The Eye published an article about shakeups in the upper echelons of the Columbia administration. The piece contained a couple of new nuggets in this seemingly never-ending story—including a summary of the infamous McKinsey report and changes to financial aid—but it can be difficult to keep track of everything that’s happened since Moodygate broke back in August 2011. So Bwog decided to put together a little guide to the latest news about Columbia’s administration and what effect, if any, this will have on your life. 

What’s the latest news about the McKinsey report?

Spec reporters apparently obtained a partial summary of the secret McKinsey report, which recommended three different options to reorganize the Arts & Sciences (A&S), an administrative grouping of the College, GS, GSAS (the liberal arts grad school), SIPA, and the School of the Arts.

The first option is the least radical, just calling for an additional “operating committee” to decide issues that involve multiple schools in FAS. Since the Dean of the College would probably be on this committee, it wouldn’t be a huge change from the status quo.

The second option is a little more centralized, suggesting that FAS create “functional heads” like a chief financial officer to decide policy for all schools in FAS. This would basically involve ceding authority for College matters from the Dean of the College (and other College administrators) to administrators in FAS who’d have to consider the interests of schools like GSAS and SIPA in addition to the College.

The final option calls for a major reorganization, basically putting the Provost—who would have to consider the interests of every school at Columbia—directly in charge of the A&S. The Dean of the College would only be responsible for the “care and feeding” of undergrads. Particularly in this option, the Dean is really no longer a leader; he or she couldn’t make decisions for the College but could only try to persuade and advise the Provost to make decisions.

Which of the three options did the University end up choosing?

None yet, although Nicholas Dirks, the vice-president of A&S did just announce the formation of an “executive committee” consisting of himself, Deantini, and the dean of GSAS, which seems similar to the “operating committee” called for in the first option.

What’s all this about financial aid? Will my financial aid be cut?

According to the Eye article, the College’s financial aid department was recently moved into the Provost’s office. Depending on the Provost’s priorities, this could be really good or really bad.

The College is always strapped for funds, while the University’s budget is much larger. If the University is serious about financial aid for undergraduates, then, they’ll be able to take money out of that large budget and put it directly into a pool for College students’ financial aid.

On the other hand, the University budget also includes many more things expenses—like facilities costs, that school we run on 110th street, and of course Manhattanville—that will be competing with financial aid for funds. At this point, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Read more after the jump.

He's got your back.

It’s another scandalous day in the Ivy League. Patrick Witt, the Yale quarterback who was lauded as a sports hero after he opted to play in the Harvard-Yale game rather than sit for his Rhodes Scholarship interview, has been accused of sexual assault. Turns out the Rhodes committee found out about the (unofficial) accusation and suspended Witt’s candidacy before the interview. (IvyGate, NYT)

Perhaps having heard recent student complaints, Obama has promised to work on bringing the cost of college down. No word yet on his plans for the Hamilton elevator. (NYMag)

If this doesn’t seem like an exciting occasion for political action to you, you’re not alone. According to a new study, college students these days are more liberal but less politically active. (HuffPo)

No matter how traumatized you were by your freshman roommate, these stories will remind you that it’s all relative. A warning to the brave souls who read them: graphic squirrel violence awaits. (Gawker)

POTUS via Wikimedia Commons

Senior Satow Correspondents Sarah Ngu and Maren Killackey report from this week’s CCSC meeting. Topics covered at the meeting include the financial aid office, Bacchanal and their debts, along with various other policies along the way.

Financial aid, Bacchanal, proper drainage... gotta have those Benjamins!

FinAid:

Student Services Rep Karishma Habbu has continued meetings with administrators from the Undergraduate Office of Financial Aid. It appears the Undergrad OFA is finally beginning to make strides towards an internal review based on the feedback it received from students, oh… last semester.

Bacchanal:

CCSC President Aki Terasaki made the announcement that, after extensive discussions with Dean Schollenberger and Dean Martinez, they have offered to cover the entire Bacchanal debt (though the offer comes with the caveat that a new event review process must be pursued). Terasaki heinously stole USenator Kenny Durell’s thunder as Durell is popularly credited with doing the legwork for the Bacchanal investigation; Durell then made a comprehensive presentation to the Council regarding his inquiry into the event’s financial situation. Durell’s report included a breakdown of Bacchanal’s expected vs. actual costs for last year, which, in the case of security fees, amounted to a difference of more than $9,000 and, in the case of facilities fees, more than $10,000. Although the Deans have agreed to reimburse Bacchanal the “full” $16,107, the total debt was more along the lines of $25,400. That missing $9K chunk was paid for by the Student Government Security Fund and therefore didn’t show up on the books, however it still represents lost Student Life fees.

Policy:

VP Ryan Cho will meet with CC Senators sometime this week about redoing the Pupin Plaza and Amsterdam Bridge. For the seven of you out there who have yet to invest in a solid pair of rainboots, this is particularly good news because in the resolution Cho will discuss is mention of, among other things, plans to fix the infamous Plaza drainage (or rather, lack thereof). Also, in response to some students’ concerns, Cho said definitively that graduate libraries are open to undergraduates, with the exception of the Law library (only during finals) and the top floor of Uris.

Co-sponsorhips:

The Council announced that it would be seeking proportional sponsorship from SGA for Bacchanal, as they do not currently contribute to funding for the even, despite significant Barnard attendance to it.

You Know It’s Finals Season When…:

The meeting ended in record time at 9:00 p.m. It would have ended around 8:55 p.m. had the conversation not unexpectedly descended into excited chatter about what food should be served during next meeting’s Holiday Party.

Cold, hard cash via Wikimedia Commons

Like this bull, many students have questions about Financial Aid

Maren Killackey and Sarah Ngu report in on CCSC’s doings

Student Services Rep Karishma Habbu continues her mission to better the College’s financial aid advising system. She will be meeting with a financial aid office rep this week to discuss a two-tiered approach to tackling the issue: one involving student feedback and the other student education. The latter could entail the creation of a FAQ page to answer such questions as, “Who decides how much people get and where are they trained?” Because there is some information the Undergraduate OFA can’t (won’t?) share, what “basic” actually means will mostly be up to them. If you’re interested, you can e-mail Karishma specific questions you would like her to ask Dean Schaffler.

A lot of the meeting was spent addressing a bias incident at Homecoming involving a few students wearing an offensive Native American headdress. The issue sparked debates regarding what exactly the Council’s position should be in situations of bias, whether there should be disciplinary action taken against those who violate Community Principles non-violently, and yes, how effective Under1Roof really is.

USenator Kenny Durrell reported that he had spoken with VP of CUIT Candace Flemming, and reportedly CUIT is close to signing a contract with Google that would put CubMail on the Gmail system. Great, right? Unfortunately, Gmail has a bit of a compliance issue with the Americans with Disabilities Act they still have to work through before the University will commit.

Despite some hemming and hawing over the TEDxColumbia proposed budget, the Council decided to give the event the full $1,000 requested.

Stuff This Week:

For freshmen especially: On Tuesday from 6-8 pm the Council will host a WTF (What to Fix) event in John Jay to solicit input about… well, what to fix. Questions? Complaints? Head on over to JJ tonight and let your CCSC representatives know about issues you think should be addressed.

Friday, October 28 there will be a LitHum themed Haunted House in Lerner Party Space featuring the likes of Medea, Clytemnestra, and just about any other bloodthirsty citizen of the Ancient world. What could be scarier than being reminded how much reading you already forgot?

Steer in thought via Wikimedia Commons

Although the absurdity of the debt ceiling debate may have made you think that politics are completely out of touch with reality, the Budget Control Act has some very real and important implications for Columbia students receiving financial aid.

First the good news: Pell Grants will continue to be funded through 2013, without a reduction in the maximum allowance of $5,550. As we explained when the bill was passed last year, healthcare reform actually included some very important changes to federal student loans. Columbia prides itself on educating the most Pell recipients of any Ivy League or private research university.

And the bad: the money to keep the Pell Grants alive comes from the elimination of federal subsidies for grad students. Furthermore, for all students with federal loans, benefits for timely payments will most likely be cut, and interest rates see increases, starting July 1, 2012.

The Office of Financial Aid’s e-mail explains the changes in detail after the jump. (more…)

this caterpillar is hairy like SSOL

Just passing on word that tomorrow, August 1st, will mark the beginning of the second summer registration period. According to an email from Barry the registration wizard Kane, registration will “open on Monday morning, August 1st, at 9:30 a.m.”  (Wait what? It’s August!) You can add and drop courses till Friday, August 12th. We noticed a couple of newbies sprinkled in there. Feast.

On the fiscal side, tipsters report that financial aid letters are out, but maybe not for all. Air grievances below.

(more…)

Photo via Wikipedia

While much of the hubbub in Washington in recent days has centered on the passage of the healthcare bill, students have yet another reason to celebrate: the passage of a bill set to thoroughly reform the student loan system. The Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act will, in effect, remove the middleman from the student loan process. Basically, students will take out loans directly from the government, not large banks and lenders like Sallie Mae. It’s all in more detail here. Suffice it to say that President Obama is “pretty stoked.”*

*Not a direct quote.

What does this mean for Columbia students? Glad you asked! In an email sent yesterday, Dean of Financial Aid Daniel Barkowitz laid out the details:

This morning, President Obama signed a reconciliation bill that significantly reforms the processing of federal loans and grants for students. In light of this legislation, Columbia University will transition to the Federal Direct Student Loan Program beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year. (more…)

Image courtesy of Facebook

In a school-wide email announcement earlier this afternoon, Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger announced that MIT Financial Aid Director Daniel Barkowitz will be Columbia’s new Dean of Financial Aid and Associate Dean of Student Affairs.

“A financial aid professional with over twenty years of experience in higher education – most recently as Director of Student Financial Aid and Employment for MIT,” Shollenberger wrote in the announcement, “he brings to Columbia a depth of experience and strategic planning skills in the areas of enrollment management and policy development.” Full email after the jump. (more…)