Marlon Jones
Director of Financial Aid Services
University of St. Francis
MASFAA

Marlon Jones has 10 years of financial aid experience, starting in graduate school at the University of Mississippi. Since graduate school, Marlon has worked at the aid offices of several institutions, including Hinds Community College, Tennessee College of Applied Technology, Rust College, and more. Currently, Marlon is the director of financial aid services at the University of St. Francis, a position he’s held since June 2023.

While Marlon says he does see increased efforts in diversity in retaining students, he still feels that commitment to diversity in higher education is lacking and that more work needs to be done to address this issue. 

“I believe that [diversity] is an important topic to discuss, being that institutions are targeting more diverse populations of students,” Marlon said. “In my experience, diversity has been lacking, but I do see it across the country in some higher education institutions.”

When asked about challenges he faced in the financial aid profession, Marlon noted that he and many of his colleagues are still struggling without resources to hire more financial aid professionals to help relieve administrative burden. 

“Overall, I'm proud of being able to overcome these challenges to help the institution remain marketable, and ensuring that the financial aid office is still serving the students to the best of our abilities,” Marlon said. 

Learn more about Marlon in the brief Q&A below.

How did you get your start in financial aid?

I started in financial aid during my master's program at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) in 2014. During the program, I was required to complete a practicum, or internship, for six months and I completed mine in the financial aid office. Most people start their career in financial aid as work-study students — I did not. But I did fall in love with the challenge. I saw the challenge of being in financial aid and I knew this is what I wanted to do. So I started my financial aid career at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi. 

After leaving Raymond, I went on to other roles such as VA coordinator, senior associate director of financial aid, and now the director of financial aid at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. I’m still going strong and still have a fire to help students. 

How have you seen diversity in higher education change since you began your career?

With regard to my personal experience, I have a lot of experience at private colleges and universities. I will say that diversity among upper-level management has always been lacking, in my opinion. However, my experience working at the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, was a little bit different. I believe that they intentionally worked to create a diverse environment for the students. But overall, I feel like my experience has not been that. 

On the other hand, when I was a student at the University of Mississippi, I saw incredible efforts from the university with regard to recruiting Black students in particular. I'd also consider myself an active user on LinkedIn and I do see universities really promoting diversity on their campus in their upper-level management. 

How does your perspective impact how you do your job and approach financial aid?

It ultimately boils down to loving to help people. Even in my personal life, outside of financial aid, I spent a lot of my time just helping people. I joined a fraternity in 2010. From then on, even though we graduated from college, we continue this community service aspect of our fraternity. I even won Omega Man of the Year this year from my local chapter. My perspective on diversity in higher education, though, is that it's important to love people and use money, instead of using people and loving money. 

I see many institutions that made a strategic effort to focus on bringing in a diverse student population and it's great. But many times it's a financial strategy. I get it and I'm all for the financial well-being of the institution and others. But I personally like to focus on helping the person become successful. 

I think they all are important, but there has to be somebody — and it's usually the financial aid people — who focuses on the students versus the bottom line. I love that students are getting these opportunities, but I try to figure out ways to focus on bringing them in the organization and setting them up for success. Not just getting the thousands of dollars in loans that they usually get, but also providing them the opportunity to pay those loans once they leave. So ultimately, it’s about taking care of the students and giving them everything in order for them to be successful. I think I can provide both being the person who cares about the financial well-being of the institution, as well as the student. 

What’s a challenge within financial aid that you personally have overcome that you're proud of?

One challenge is my fight to always remain ethical and compliant, even when everyone has their own opinions about compliance and regulations — even though they're not privy to the regulations. Also being able to continue to succeed even with the lack of resources available. I believe that institutions are still suffering and struggling from the pandemic to hire financial aid professionals. They face challenges like the refusal to hire because of budget constraints, and the lack of applicants out there to hire.

What's a change in financial aid that you would like to see happen?

Most of the financial aid efforts that we focus on now are dealing with finances. I'd like for most of the financial aid efforts for us to focus more on retaining diverse populations of students. A lot of times when we ask what's the retention rate, we’re given the overall retention rate, but the retention rate for diverse populations is not given. I'd like to see more financial aid directors work more closely with student affairs to focus on student retention, whether it's diverse populations or not. There's a large effort in recruiting diverse populations and I’d like to see efforts to increase retention as well. 

What advice do you have for those in financial aid?

I have two pieces of advice. I would say get mentors and always continue to ask questions. I’ve spent 10 years in the profession and I still have questions. I wouldn't consider myself a top-level expert, but I do have a lot of information to share with others, and I don't mind calling others to get information as well.

I would also suggest getting involved in the state and regional financial aid organizations and serving on task forces and committees within those organizations. In Ohio, OASFAA really provided me with an opportunity to meet and work with some amazing people. I served on the new member committee, as well as the outreach committee. Making the financial aid connections has changed my entire trajectory in my career path. At one point, especially during the pandemic, I would not say my love was lost for financial aid, but I was considering getting out of higher education. But joining OASFAA gave me a boost of motivation to learn and grow. These connections also turned into friendships for me. Definitely get involved, and get mentors.