Upon preparing for college, Chase Pease, a junior at Utah State University was faced with the major responsibility of dealing with his own finances. Coming from a large family with little money, all the responsibility of payment for tuition and fees was on him. Since Pease's first semester he has been awarded scholarships and financial aid at times but no summation of what it will cost for him to get a degree at USU. Pease is only one of the many students who have experienced this as graduation gets closer and finances get smaller.
Utah State University is legally required to follow certain rules and regulations by the federal government because it is funded by them. Under the “Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act,” put in place in November of 1990, “current and prospective students must be informed of completion of graduation rates of students seeking certificates or degrees.”
This has not been happening at USU.
A chart of tuition and fees is listed on the University's website; however, cost estimates of individual degrees are not given. This service is required under the Student Right to Know Act. Financial aid and scholarship information is also required to be given to students. The financial aid office has given students counseling and specific information for their personal aid but in regards to scholarships most students have found it difficult to get information from the financial aid office or even counselors.
Rachel Wabel, a student at USU, was awarded a two year scholarship from the University. Wabel approached the financial aid office to find out what would happen after the two years. Little information was given to her and when she asked if other scholarships were available as well, the financial aid office gave the short reply, “We don't deal with scholarship information in this office. Talk to a counselor.” Wabel said.
The act additionally states that campus security statistics must be provided to students. The Office of Analysis, Assessment and Accreditation is the main source of information required by this act. Their website includes analytical data dealing with the graduation and retention rates at USU as well as campus security statistics.
Although this data meets the requirements of the Student Right to Know Act it provides just enough information to uphold the law, meeting the bare minimum.
The statistics dealing with on campus security are solely based off of on campus housing. Two thirds of the student body lives off campus and that is where the majority of crimes occur. Most incidents are near the University but not directly within the boundaries of it, and therefore not covered by the crime data provided to students.
Many students have shown concern over this apparent lack of communication from the University, especially those parents with children who live off campus. Although the school is not legally obligated to share crime statistics from the surrounding neighborhoods, the on-campus information is presented in a way that is easily misunderstood as community-wide. Hundreds of students move off campus each year completely unaware of this misrepresentation.
“Acts like this I feel are just a way to cover someone's butt,” said Derek Kent, a senior at USU. “If they really cared about transparency and public knowledge there would be a process of education on the subject as well,” Kent said.
More information about the Student Right to Know act can be found at http://www.usu.edu/aaa.(J.Ballard)
