By Joelle Fredman, NASFAA Staff Reporter
As institutions place an increasingly greater emphasis on enrollment management, the financial aid office has a large role to play in helping schools meet their recruiting goals while ensuring students are well-served, financial aid professionals told NASFAA members Monday afternoon.
Dr. Forrest Stuart, the associate vice president for enrollment management and director of financial aid at Furman University, and Anthony P. Jones, the director of financial aid at Appalachian State University, said that financial aid offices should insert themselves into their institutions' conversations around enrollment strategies because they have unique and valuable perspectives that the broader institution does not have — direct interaction with students.
Jones said that financial aid offices need to recognize that this is a “skill [that] isn’t there in any other office.”
They explained that financial aid offices should use data they collect on students to back their claims on how different financial aid and programs help students complete degrees or increase diversity on campus by helping low-income students succeed, thereby helping institutions meet their various enrollment goals. Jones suggested aid administrators “anticipate the questions you may have and have the data to back them.”
They also emphasized that it is crucial for financial aid offices to be well-versed in their institutions' enrollment goals and “cultural norms” in order to make their case for funding.
Publication Date: 6/25/2018