Administrators, students work to address minority retention, financial aid issues

Last night, representatives from Pitt’s administration and Student Government Board came… Last night, representatives from Pitt’s administration and Student Government Board came together to listen to students’ concerns about financial aid and retention as part of the student leaders’ forum series.

Students were invited to bring their concerns to the nine-member panel that included SGB President Jeff Alex, Vice Provost and Interim Dean of Students Jack Daniel, and representatives from Pitt’s office of admissions and financial aid, the office of institutional advancement, student affairs and student financial services.

The forum resulted in a new committee being formed as a liaison to the provost’s office through SGB.

Many of the same issues were raised repeatedly by different students. Among these issues were the desire for a black cultural center on campus to aid retention of black students, and financial aid for students not supported by their parents and for students who did not receive aid as incoming freshman.

George Ayub, the SGB academic affairs chair, told the audience that financial aid and retention are two topics his committee has been hard at work on.

Along with the provost’s office, the committee is working on a financial aid Web site for Pitt students to use as a resource in securing educational funding. Ayub said the site should be finished by the end of the semester.

“Currently, there’s no central location for finding scholarships offered by different schools,” he said.

In addition, committee members are working on a report for the University about retention issues that should be finished by the end of the month. Ayub explained that the report explores why Pitt’s minority students are retained at a lower rate.

“We should work on funding a cultural center to help with retention,” he said, to much enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Another student, Laura Askin, asked the panel if the University could do anything to help students whose financial situations had changed. She explained that since she started school, her father became too ill to work.

“There was no money available from the school, so I had to take out a loan,” she said.

Debbie Rupert, a senior associate director in the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, explained, “A lot of students don’t think of loans as financial aid, but that’s our biggest source [of aid].”

“No student should leave the University for financial reasons without talking to someone in the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid first,” she said repeatedly.

Other questions dealt with the logistics surrounding financial aid. One student asked whether a scholarship could be used to cover off-campus housing. Another wanted to know how to apply for scholarships for summer classes.

A number of students brought retention issues to the microphone, asking whether minority retention rates were low because not enough aid is made available for minorities or whether the rates result from the social atmosphere at Pitt.

Daniel then offered to sit down with students and obtain more information.

“I would like to meet with students to get something to take back to the administration,” he said.

Daniel suggested forming a committee to address scholarship possibilities – and the criteria on which those scholarships are based – for students already enrolled who did not receive aid as freshmen.

Students signed a piece of paper that was passed around the audience, adding their names and e-mail addresses to the list of potential committee members.

“We’ll have the committee by the end of the week,” Alex said.

Jessica Burgan, a sophomore who recently returned to Pitt, brought up another issue.

“It really seems to me like it’s more about numbers and statistics than people getting an education