Financial troubles deter students

editorial cartoon by Bonnie H. Chuen
editorial cartoon by Bonnie H. Chuen

This is not another editorial about financial aid problems. Every year the Campus Times writes about conflicts that students have with the Financial Aid office and makes sure the public knows what happened.

Writing about what happened is not enough.

We could tell you about the students that still do not have financial aid packages.

We could give quotes from enraged students who had to drop out of school because they did not get enough money.

We could tell you about allegedly lost paperwork that an imaging system purchased a year ago that was supposed to help alleviate.

We could make the pages burn with the anger of students who have been victimized by a program that they just do not understand.

Instead of repeating the unanswered cries of the past, let us remind those responsible of the importance of financial aid in a students life and the life of the University. If La Verne did not have any sports teams, clubs, or residence halls, it would still be a University.

However, if La Verne had no students, it would be nothing.

Because so few student’s families can afford the $14,000 a year price tag of a ULV education, financial aid is the only means by which most students are able to go to school. Financial aid is the lifeblood of this University.

Professors, administrators, computers, tutors, buildings and labs are all worthless without students to educate.

How do you explain to a student who has spent three years going to college, now tens of thousands of dollars in debt, that he cannot afford one final year? How do you alleviate the fears of students who place their entire existence and future on two sheets of paper that read “Award Letter?”

The administration is struggling with many issues as it grows into a better institution. Yet it fails to comprehend that all the long-term planning and growth will be for nothing if the needs of students are not met.

This is not an editorial about the problems of financial aid. This is an editorial to remind the University that it exists to educate students, and, without a reliable financial aid office, those students will not attend ULV.

If we told you about the problems of financial aid–the lost paperwork, the lack of money, the unreturned phone calls–those issues would be disregarded as all complaints of the past.

Instead, take a moment and remember that behind every file and every sheet of paper is a young, aspiring student who needs help. Someone who will make a difference in the future of this world, if only they could afford a college education.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Bonnie H. Chuen

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