By Michael Del Genio
The Trump administration’s attack on the Department of Education (DOE) is raising concerns at Dominican due to the department’s role in managing student financial aid.
“What makes me kind of nervous is the talk of disrupting the DOE,” says Mark Titzer, chief financial officer. “Some other agencies could manage those programs. The presence of those programs is important to institutions.”
Dominican University is an institution that relies heavily on its students’ access to financial aid with 100% of the students using some form of it, whether it be federal, state, or scholarship-based aid.
The university is also home to a large population of undocumented students, who could be seriously affected by the potential disruption. Other students with at least one undocumented parent could face anxiety about filling out financial aid forms including FAFSA, which requires family information.
“If you’re a mixed family, where your mom is a citizen and your dad is not, they might be hesitant to give a lot of information,” Titzer explained. “We can’t say: ‘don’t worry about it; the federal government won’t use that information to find your uncle or someone.’”
Titzer also encourages students to apply for FAFSA.
“We will hopefully talk to students [to help them] make a decision,” he said. “You fill out a FAFSA, [which] links to your IRS records and DOE. If people are unable to fill out FAFSA for whatever reasons, they’re going to miss out on Pell and MAP Grants and not be able to afford to come here.”
The Pell Grant is federal while the MAP Grant is state funded. Both grants are commonly used by Dominican students.
According to Tina Baskin, executive director of financial aid, students have already faced unrelated problems over MAP Grants.
“Before Christmas, MAP found they were overspent,” she said. “We’ve given these awards and we had to scramble right before Christmas to do reductions. For all intents and purposes, it was a small reduction, but it was out of our hands. We don’t control that money. It’s the state’s money and it’s up to them. That’s the kind of thing we’ve seen already.”
Baskin said she is uncertain about what will happen with “the new administration.”
“We know and are seemingly a threat to the DOE in terms of everything,” she said. “What we’re seeing is that [many] students aren’t able to complete the FAFSA. They get outside aid, state aid, and nonprofit organizations that partner to give them money. [However,] with people being wary now with the administration, is there a risk to putting information on the FAFSA? We don’t know what they’re going to do.”
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