Loan Dashboard Now Available

Americans in general place a great deal of respect on and pay a great amount of attention to higher education. From the moment a student first sets foot into high school, they are bombarded with the message “Go to college, earn a degree in something, and you too can become a success.” Unfortunately, many students do not have the means to pay the sometimes draconian costs of college. Throw in room and board and the price of schoolbooks, and students can often expect to pay quite a lot. While Concord is relatively cheap to attend compared to other universities, incoming freshmen often have to take out student loans. And they are increasingly doing so, often to their own detriment. In an article from The Wall Street Journal entitled “Congratulations, Class of 2015. You’re the Most Indebted Ever (For Now),” writer Jeffrey Sparshott states that a little over 70% of those who graduated in 2015 have student loans. On average, each individual student owes roughly $35,000 at the time of graduation. This adds up to a country where, as of 2012, student loan debt has surpassed both automobile and credit card debt. 

    Concord University’s administration is aware of how expensive college can be, which is why they have created a tool that will allow students quick access to see just how much one has borrowed and how much time it will take to pay off. When a student logs in to their MyCU account and clicks on the “Student” tab, they will find a new feature called “Loan Dashboard.” Clicking on this will allow students to see exactly how much debt they have accumulated, an interest rate that they might use, how much interest the loans will accrue in ten years based off of that rate, and a grand total of the amount borrowed added with the interest. 

    Marjie Flanigan, Concord’s Vice President of Student Affairs, says that Concord wants to assist students in navigating and understanding financial aid and student loans. “A lot of times, students seem to borrow the maximum amount because that’s what’s available to them, and not necessarily what they need. We had a few goals in mind while making this. One was to have students borrow only the amount they needed to go to school instead of getting check change and maybe spending it before they really need it and they run out of money before they finish their program. Two, to decrease student loan debt, and to also [help] students plan.” 

    Flanigan added that the process began with the University of Indiana in Bloomington. They had started a pilot project that received federal grant money to create a tracker and a form of loan education for their students so that they could not only monitor their borrowing, but also become aware of their borrowing limit. What they found was that the more that they educated students on loans, the less money was needlessly borrowed and the less number of students defaulted. Overall, the rate of borrowing decreased by roughly 11%. As a result of this study, Indiana state legislature passed a law that requires all state colleges to inform students what their student loan debt is, in paper form, every year. 

    A group of concerned staff members gathered together in the summer of 2015 and began to question how they could implement a similar system at Concord University. Jamie Boggs, Director of Web Development, came up with the idea of a dashboard that students could see. The group was interested in this due to its visual nature. It is also helpful because, unlike Indiana, this can be viewed whenever a student pleases. “In Indiana, they’re doing it in paper, not a dashboard like this, so it’s really cutting-edge,” Flanigan said. The Loan Dashboard is now active and can be viewed by Concord students, though it is only available to undergraduates and not graduate students.