Awards honor outstanding campus programs that assist students with education debt
USA Funds recognizes three schools for debt-management excellence
INDIANAPOLIS — USA Funds®, the nation’s leading education-loan guarantor, announces the recipients of USA Funds 2005 Excellence in Debt Management awards. The second-annual awards recognize postsecondary institutions that have successfully developed and implemented effective and creative debt-management programs for their students.
The award recipients and the scholarship funds that USA Funds will award to the winning institutions for their students are as follows:
- Best Debt-Management Program – $2,500 scholarship – Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
- First Runner-up – $1,500 scholarship – Bennett College for Women, Greensboro, N.C.
- Second Runner-up – $1,000 scholarship – Oakwood College, Huntsville, Ala.
“These three colleges and universities make a significant investment in creative programs to help their students minimize the debt they incur during their academic careers, prepare them to manage that debt following graduation, and work with their graduates to ensure successful loan repayment,” said Denise B. Feser, USA Funds vice president, customer relations. “We’re delighted to recognize their achievements and to disseminate their best practices to others in the financial-aid community.”
Nova Southeastern University is a private, four-year university that serves 24,000 students and has a cohort-default rate of 1.1 percent. Its debt-management-awareness initiative for students enrolled in the Fischler School of Education and Human Services includes debt-management information that is incorporated in an orientation program for new doctoral-degree students as well as in a required course for incoming master’s-degree and specialty-degree students. Both programs use materials from USA Funds’ financial-literacy program, USA Funds Life Skills®, delivered with the assistance of a USA Funds debt-management consultant.
Bennett College is a private, four-year Historically Black College or University that serves 500 students. Its debt-management initiatives have reduced its cohort-default rate to less than 3 percent from a high of nearly 28 percent since 1998. Its expansive activities, which include a default-management plan, debt-management seminars, financial-aid-week programs, credit counseling, assembly presentations, as well as phone and letter campaigns, are conducted by one staff person with the assistance of a part-time work-study student.
Oakwood College is a private, four-year Historically Black College or University with an enrollment of approximately 1,550 students. It provides debt-management information to its students through a two-day event called Better Awareness Regarding Borrowers’ Questions. The event combines information specific to underclassmen, juniors and seniors with a barbeque. Among the resources used in the initiative are materials from USA Funds Life Skills.
View summaries of each program.