JAKE MULLIN
Staff Writer
The DCGA, in coordination with the Office of Student Development, is turning their attention towards students’ financial well-being this year.
A report, entitled “Students’ Financial Well-Being,” was compiled over the Spring and Summer of 2016 by Dr. Laurel Kennedy and Julie Tucker. It gathers students’ attitudes towards financial stress, limitations, and literacy.
The purpose of the study is to address issues of financial disadvantage and formulate solutions so that the University can better ensure every student’s success.
The project highlighted many concerns from students who experienced financial constraint while attending Denison. Of these, a few concerns seemed more palpable and immediate than others.
For student workers, ten hours per week had been the long standing limit on available and compensable hours. Many student employees felt that this hour cap was too restricting, often finding themselves being cut off from pay and having to cancel shifts once surpassing the weekly limit.
Tucker and Kennedy saw the need for change and were able to remove the ten hour limit, replacing it instead with a semesterly maximum of 150 hours. Thinking forward, plans to extend this cap even farther are currently in negotiation.
Potentially most important of all was Dr. Kennedy’s intention to open a position within the next few years for a financial literacy “guide”- a position that would offer financial counseling to students who were not sure of how to pay for their loans, apply for campus jobs, manage their healthcare and insurance, and so on.
The necessity for a position like this at Denison is critical.
Dr. Kennedy and Tucker believe that many students’ financial needs are not being met to the fullest potential and that much can be done to better serve our community.