How are you incorporating financial education on your campus?

Lili Vidal Director Financial Aid and Scholarships California State University, Northridge

The Financial Aid and Scholarship Department at California State University, Northridge (www.csun.edu/finaid/) initially engaged in financial literacy efforts four years ago, first participating in a fledgling California coalition of colleges funded by an EdFund grant, and expanding to collaborations with academic departments and programs, the collections office and departments within Student Affairs. Through an array of opportunities students engage in learning through individual counseling, presentations, webpages, and campus events. A primary concern is teaching students to make informed decisions to reduce cost, and finance their college education without sacrificing their academic focus or crippling their financial futures.

Financial Aid counselors are invited to make presentations in University 100 classrooms each semester and to the EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) Summer Bridge Program students. Counselors encourage students to focus on "needs" while in college and deferring "wants" to later, using the adage, "If you live like a professional when you are a student, you will live like a student when you are a professional." Counselors teach students how to budget and elaborate the benefits of borrowing through low-cost government loans rather than high-cost credit cards.

Each spring a campus-wide event, Matador Dollar Days, is held involving other departments in a festival atmosphere with information booths, entertainment, Matty the Matador, and a free lunch. Booth topics include financial aid, scholarships, debt management, career choices, loans, and more. About 1,000 students attend the event. Assessments document student learning.

Last fall the department launched a new financial literacy webpage with topics to consider and strategies to employ such as graduating on time, balancing work hours and class hours, using government loans and credit wisely, and looking for other resources such as scholarships.

The department's next step is to fully deploy Financial Literacy 101, a Decision Partners product. A faculty member piloted it in a classroom last term, reporting that students enthusiastically embraced the tool. The tool will be available to more faculty next year and fully implemented on the department website for all students.

Financial Literacy is an exciting opportunity to bring academic affairs and student affairs together in a common learning objective, helping students make informed decisions to reduce the costs of college and finance it reasonably.

Leslie Lum Faculty Member Business Program Bellevue Community College

Financial Education at Bellevue Community College (FEBCC) was established in January 2007 to create a national model to train community college student populations on money management and improve the financial security of the citizens of Washington state. It was funded by a grant from the Investor Protection Trust and the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions. During the life of the grant which ended January 2009, FEBCC reached close to 6000 people with its training and events.

In addition, through the Seattle Times Get Smart About Your Money 16-page insert, FEBCC distributed its curriculum to a circulation of 220,000 in November 2007 and again in September 2008 along with distribution of 50,000 of the inserts through Washington state credit unions. This was acknowledged as a best practice by the Treasury Department.

FEBCC developed six modules of financial education curriculum suitable for college level students, including an instructor book, student book, and presentation slides. Some of these courses have been converted to online delivery at Bellevue College.

Through the process of creating a program around financial education, we have also learned many valuable lessons:

1. Keep the messaging positive. Studies have shown that negative messaging can stimulate the wrong behaviors.
2. Make it behavior and not knowledge based. Behavioral finance shows that people are hard-wired to do the wrong thing. Other studies have found that a little knowledge is dangerous and stimulates the wrong behaviors.
3. Do activities not lectures. You need to keep the learner engaged.
4. Have resources to act on afterwards. Provide materials and resources to take away, especially if you are doing only one session.
5. High intensity, single sessions versus multiple sessions keep interest up. Annual campaigns to remind people to engage in the right behaviors are beneficial.

More information on our programs and services can be found at www.bellevuecollege.edu/financialeducation.

Dottie B. Durband, Ph.D., AFC Associate Professor, Personal Financial Planning Associate Chair, Department of Applied & Professional Studies Director, Red to Black™ Program Texas Tech University

Student debt is a significant issue on university campuses. Texas Tech University has taken an active role in enhancing the financial literacy of its students through Red to Black (www.r2b.ttu.edu), an outreach of an academic program in personal financial planning (www.pfp.ttu.edu). The name represents the school's colors and the program goal to help students get "out of the red" in their personal finances. The impetus for creation of the program in spring 2001 was anecdotal evidence from faculty and administrators revealing student debt and other financial problems.

Red to Black provides free and confidential financial counseling and education for the Texas Tech community. Services include individual or couple sessions and presentations or workshops. Select volunteers who are upper division or graduate students in PFP provide all services. Volunteers have completed core courses and receive extensive training each fall in addition to ongoing continuing education training. The staff includes a faculty director, two graduate students, a student coordinator and approximately 25 student volunteers.

Issues that lead students to seek services can range from debt to comparing employee benefits. Presentations are provided on topics such as living on a student budget, establishing credit, debt reduction, expenses after college and pre-marital finances. Presentations are delivered in such places as freshmen orientation, academic classes, student organizations and local school systems. In terms of community outreach, we have prepared programs for individuals on federal probation, individuals in a residential treatment center and military Service members preparing for deployment. The program hosts an annual Financial Education Week to promote financial wellbeing.

Red to Black was the first peer financial counseling program in Texas and has inspired the creation of programs at other universities. The program instills the importance of service among volunteers and provides them with leadership opportunities and practical experience before entering the job market.

Cynthia Needles Fletcher Professor and Extension Specialist Human Development and Family Studies Iowa State University

Family financial management education has been a component of Iowa State University Extension to Families since the early 1900'soffering non-credit education to meet the needs of individuals and families. Systematic needs assessments using online surveys, focus groups and community listening sessions guide the development of research-based programs that emphasize "Money for Life."

The objective of current programs are to help individuals make more informed financial and consumer decisions that result in increased family economic stability. Extension educators use a wide range of delivery methods including face-to-face workshops, toll-free hotlines, mass media, publications, a growing list of web-based distance courses, interactive websites, blogs and ask-the-expert opportunities. Current priority programs include a community-based program that addresses poverty via financial literacy education and asset development; a financial planning curriculum taught by trained high school teachers; distance courses on financial management for women, first-time homeownership, investing, and financial counseling; and community workshops that teach basic financial management skills to young families.

ISU Extension offers a new website on Managing Tough Times (www.extension.iastate.edu/toughtimes/), a broad-based personal finance website (www.extension.iastate.edu /finances/), and leads a national Community of Practice extension website on personal finance (www.extension.org/). Program evaluations demonstrate significant knowledge and behavior change. More than 165,000 Iowans were reached by ISU Extension financial management educational programs in the past year.

Shana Hawke-Stanton Coordinator Financial Education and Counseling Center The University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma Financial Education & Counseling Center (FEd) was established in 2006. The program's primary goal is to offer students the resources they need to graduate with as little debt as possible. The FEd provides students and alumni with free information and publications on managing their finances and saving for the future.

The center has four main components that make up its C.O.R.E.: Counseling, Outreach, Research, and Employment. We offer counseling on various financial topics such as budgeting, saving, scholarships, financial aid, credit cards, and loans. Our outreach component includes free financial education workshops that are open to all students, call campaigns, and freshman seminars. The FEd researches student loan debt, credit card debt, student gambling trends, and annual book costs. Our employment sector is focused on connecting students with departments on campus through temporary job assignments to help influence networking.

We believe that if we assist students in creating a plan to budget their finances and choose their debt wisely while in college, they will continue to utilize that information after they graduate. We want students to learn that the choices they make today will impact them for the rest of their lives. Since the FEd opened its doors, we have had a steady flow of students accessing our services. While the program has only been operating for a few years, recent surveys indicate that students feel the University of Oklahoma is providing them with valuable financial information. Financial literacy and credit awareness are serious issues and we want our students to be prepared to make crucial financial decisions.