With the Higher Education Act reauthorization up for consideration and potential federal cuts on the table, communication with policymakers on how reductions in federally funded aid will affect students has become an even more critical issue for students and universities across the nation.
DePaul will be contributing to these important federal-funding and policy conversations as part of a recently formed advocacy group with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). The group, called the NASFAA Advocacy Network, is the first grass-roots advocacy effort of its kind, and as of August 2017, DePaul is one of its six regional representatives, advocating for the Midwestern region.
The main charge of the NASFAA Advocacy Network is to lobby congressional members in an effort to influence national financial aid policies. DePaul’s first assignment is to gather and prepare data to bring to the house and senate—specific dollar amounts that students rely on—to demonstrate the detrimental repercussions of losing that aid.
EMM’s Fran Cebrzynski, senior associate director in the Office of Financial Aid, is representing DePaul on the network’s taskforce.
“My hope is to make policymakers aware of what this aid means for our students,” shares Cebrzynski. “Should these programs go away, so many of our students won’t be able to finance their education. One in three DePaul students is a first-generation student. Many don’t have safety nets to fall back on, and losing federally funded aid will mean losing opportunities that an education can provide. It’s important for legislators to understand this, and I am happy to represent DePaul in that effort.”
Visit the
NASFAA website to learn more about their work, and contact
Fran Cebrzynski for more information on DePaul’s involvement in the Advocacy Network.