Leadership Summit Focus Group Report: Financial Aid
In order to provide feedback to the ad hoc committee on strategic planning, a series of topical focus groups were conducted with alumni and parents who participated in the Leadership Summit Weekend. Approximately 80 individuals dedicated the morning on Saturday, September 21 to learning about the overall goals of the strategic planning process and then participating in a series of hour-long focus groups. The financial aid group was reviewed by Robin Tovey ’97:
This was a lively and passionate group. More than 35 people attended the sessions.
All agreed that Reed should expand its financial aid program, but there were many questions raised about how and to whom. The issue of preference for providing domestic aid over international informs the potential decisions around “who do we want to educate.” Acknowledging that Reed’s selectivity is rising as the applicant pool is dropping, thus financial aid is huge point of competition, they discussed concerns about the “donut hole in the middle,” students who get least aid are middle class, as a thorny problem of access. Also, consideration must be given to the reality that sticker shock deters some working-class families who are not aware of opportunities for aid; this is a troublesome information gap. Finally, struggling with ethical dilemmas like “do we deal with lower-class need above the middle-class donut hole?” could lead to a process of prioritizing that depends upon asking: do we want a student body built on a continuum or a divide? High-level takeaway: top concerns are about maintaining access, reducing costs, and how to make impact with our giving.
For those desiring additional information:
The group received an advance copy of a white paper entitled “Opening the door: exploring ways to expand financial aid“: Door Whitepaper_Final_MT
Here are the full notes and facilitator review for the sessions as a PDF: Leadership Summit-door
