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SEEKING STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

Practitioner Reflection Paper: Seeking Student Development Theories in Financial Aid

Melissa A. Villa

California State University, Fresno

HEAL 223: Students in Higher Education

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SEEKING STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

In the pursuit of higher education, one of the most common denominators among all

college students is the cost of tuition and fees. Whether you’re an undergraduate or

postbaccalaureate, the exponential cost of your degree is going to be one of the deciding factors

of degree completion. Working as a financial aid counselor for the better part of five years now

at three different institutions, I’ve had my fair share of conversations with students regarding

their finances. Financial aid processing tends to classify students based on various factors such as

EFC (Expected Family Contribution), grade level, GPA (Grade Point Average), and pace of

progression (earned and attempted units). The whole ideology behind financial aid is to provide

post-secondary educational access to poverty-stricken families. “The Higher Education Act

(HEA) of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was originally intended to

expand the federal government’s role in higher education policy, including provision of federal

financial assistance to students, specifically access to higher education for lower and middle-

income students,” (“NASPA,” n.d.). It’s no surprise that a majority of the students we serve in

the financial aid office are first-generation students of color.

There are many ways to identify the social class status of students on a college campus,

but nowhere has that been more apparent than within the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office.

“Social class has a profound effect on higher education, influencing who has access to college,

which colleges individuals attend, whether or not college is affordable, and whether is an option

at all,” (Patton, et. al., 2016, p. 244). I meet with students about twice a week to discuss their aid

eligibility and review financial aid estimates for future terms of attendance. Most of the students

I have interacted with have been first-generation and essentially come from lower to middle-

class families. I would not be able to identify these students’ social classifications without
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accessing data that comes from the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)

application. FAFSA is a government application of the U.S. Department of Education, and it is

what is used to determine a student’s socio-economic status, which in turn creates an EFC

(Expected Family Contribution) index in which our office uses to determine how much a student

and their family can afford.

Federal aid eligibility is not by any means a perfect system, but it does offer financial

support to lower and middle-class students who would not be able to pursue a degree without it.

I’ve interacted with many students who are quick to throw in the towel if their financial aid

package is not enough to cover their entire fees. Obviously, my experience with financial aid

processing/eligibility at Fresno State differs from my financial aid advising experience at UC

Berkeley. It really comes down to the surrounding community and demographics of the area

around these schools that makes a difference in the type of students you’ll interact with.

According to the 2022 statistics of the U.S. Census Bureau, 73.4% of Berkeley’s population has

a bachelor’s degree or higher for persons over the age of 25 years. In contrast, only 23.6% of

Fresno’s population has a bachelor’s degree for persons over the age of 25 years (U.S. Census

Bureau, n.d.). There are value notes on the U.S. Census website that indicate that the data may

have a sampling error based on what type of methodology was used in each city, but the

comparison, nonetheless, is striking. When I was providing financial aid advising at UCB, a lot

of the need-based students were from the valley and/or central California. Fresno’s poverty-

stricken community is a direct reflection of our student population; low-income and working

class.

Often times, I’m able to get a picture of a student’s intersecting identities based on the

different committees that I serve on. A lot of the issues that working class students face, I come
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across through my committee review for Good Samaritan Grants (GSG). I currently review GSG

applications for the Project Hope office at Fresno State. Essentially this office is a resource for

students who are experiencing unforeseen financial circumstances and are in need of emergency

assistance. Working-class college students often have to deal with the conflicting environments

of the household they grew up in and the collegiate community they are now a part of (Patton et.

al., 2016, p. 249). A majority of these GSG applications are from working-class students who are

just trying to pay the bills while they attend school. I see a lot of students who are student-

parents and/or they’re the caretakers for their parents/siblings. Most families cannot afford to

financially assist their college student, so often times we see students who are facing evictions

from the dorms. This is where the gaps are in funding because even though housing and food is

built into the Cost of Attendance (COA) for a financial aid package, the awards do not reflect the

ability to cover those costs. My role as a financial aid counselor is to help navigate students to

other resources that are available such as Project Hope and GSG.

Some other programs that I have a part in processing for students is the EOP (Educational

Opportunity Program) Grant and I’m also the Work Study Coordinator for the campus. I know

that from the outside, critics of financial aid don’t think that we are doing enough to help our

students or that we don’t provide enough aid, but those amounts are limited by federal funding.

That is a whole other topic/issue for another time. Since studying student development theories

of higher education in the HEAL graduate program, my viewpoints of college students have

changed. I feel like I’m looking at the students I serve with a whole different lens than before.

Suddenly, the work I do makes sense and the issues that college students face is no longer hidden

in plain sight. I’m able to recognize the need of Student Affairs to fill in the gap between
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students and faculty. I may not be exposed to all development theories in my current line of

work, but I definitely have partnerships with other offices within Student Affairs that do.

References

NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. (n.d.) Background: Higher Ed Act

Reauthorization. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from https://www.naspa.org/policypapers/

Background-brief-higher-education-act-reauthorization

Patton, L. D., Renn, K. A., Guido, F. M., & Quaye, S. J. (2016). Student Development in

College: Theory, Research, and Practice. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: Berkeley, California. United States Census Bureau. (n.d.).

Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/berkeleycitycalifornia

U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: Fresno City, California. United States Census Bureau. (n.d.).

Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fresnocitycalifornia