Hammad Motiwala | Contributor
Featured Image: Think you know enough about your finances? These professors can help. | Basma Elbahnasawy
Four professors from York held a Community Conversation on June 6 in advance of the new school year. Economics Professor Brenda Spotton Visano co-hosted the Conversation, alongside Administrative Studies Professor Chris Robinson, Assistant Professor Jodi Letkiewicz, Associate Professor Joanne Magee, and Lorna Schwartzentruber, manager of the York-TD Community Engagement Centre.
The Community Conversation was hosted at the York-TD Community Engagement Centre, which fosters university-community collaborations. It provided an opportunity forcommunity members to discuss debt issues facing students with lower incomes.
“We all appreciated the opportunity to network and identify questions and issues related to both the new Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) rules, as well as issues involving management of existing student debt and debt rehabilitations,” said Spotton Visano.
To Spotton Visano, the benefit of the new policy is simple—lower-income students will now be getting a larger proportion of grant money. This is, however, contingent on how successful they are in their respective courses.
She highlights the purpose of financial literacy, describing that “because tuition is so high, financial literacy can help students manage that debt and understand the contract they have entered into with the university and government.”
Financial literacy is an imperative tool to have in achieving one’s academic, professional, and personal success. The existence of prolonged student debts, however, has an impact on the opposite side of the financial ‘well-being’ spectrum.
For the purpose of inspiring financial empowerment, the event alerted students to the resources available to them on campus this fall semester. One such resource includes financial advising offered through Student Financial Services, which also lists available scholarships, bursaries, awards, and provides accessible information on financial aid and loans, among other valuable resources.
“The information is there on the website—but again, the self- exploration is up to the student,” says Rosa Berdejo Williams, program coordinator with the Transition Year Program, who had previously worked in Student Financial Services.
The problem with financial literacy skills is not the absolute absence of it—in most cases, it’s more to do with building upon these skills and getting to the solutions of different cases.
Following the Community Conversation was a three-hour workshop on resourcing student debt Solutions. The workshop provided opportunities to brainstorm solutions for a variety of issues to develop the resources needed to help clients resolve complex student debt cases. It also covered significant topics such as understanding and navigating the OSAP loan application process.
For students who want a three-credit course on personal finance, Letkiewicz created one that is specifically designed to introduce non-business majors to financial literacy and empowerment.
University can be tough—sometimes students have to survive on the bare minimum.
Spotton Visano says: “The better you comprehend your finances and contracts, the more empowered and in control you feel, experiencing less stress and anxiety—that’s crucial.”
