Editorial Reflections...
by Becky Cady

Is this the hardest time of the year for financial aid? Sometimes it seems that regardless of when that question is posed, the answer would be "Yes!" But, perhaps it is a question not worth dwelling on. Each of us, for whatever reason, has chosen to be affiliated with the wonderful world of financial aid. We are a unique bunch! Lately the question of whether financial aid folks are born or bred this way has been raised in my presence a number of times. I am hoping it is neither, but again, there is definitely something unique - and something very good - about being in financial aid.

While there are numerous new technologies, faster and more efficient ways of getting aid dollars out to students, the essence of financial aid remains the same: helping students achieve an education. This must be why we are willing to manage the bureaucracy, the complex and changing regulations, the infamous 10% of somewhat "pillish" students...

I am willing to speculate that we do all this because we value learning and we view our roles as an opportunity to make students' lives better.

I am willing to speculate on this because I have had the opportunity to travel and visit a number of your campuses during the past year and found this observation to be consistently true. I am also willing to speculate because I recently returned to the college financial aid environment and this sensibility was part of what drew me back - though even when I was on the vending side, that motive held true.

This was confirmed by an exercise our financial aid staff just completed. We did a free-association of sorts, based on the premise that it is much easier to get where you are going if you have some idea of where you want to be. Let me explain. It seems to me that we are sometimes reluctant to say we work in financial aid. We can feel a bit beleaguered and it may appear that the only students who remember us are those that received misinformation or not enough money. So, our exercise was to envision what kind of experience we wanted students and other departments to have with our office. The questions we reflected on included: "What image do we want to present?" "If a customer were to describe their interactions with our office, what would we want them to say?" "How do we want to be perceived by students, by other administrative departments, by faculty?" "What do we want us to say about each other?".

I will not go into great detail, but let me tell you that we are professional, helpful, competent, knowledgeable, caring, positive, friendly, efficient, consistent, equitable, responsible, fair, accurate, and we operate in compliance with regulations while still being in the business of benefiting students. Now that it has been articulated, we can be even more purposeful in directing our energy toward strengthening these qualities and reinforcing this assessment.

These words are not just an impression of what we wish for, hope for, or want to be... they truly describe who we are and how we work. We simply need to help others, and help ourselves, realize that.