College Financial Awareness

Contributed by Nicole Stork-Hestad, UK Graduate Student

Ah, college- noted around the nation as the best years of your life. University students from California to Maine are spring break-ing, pulling all-nighters, and cramming every ounce of “knowledge” possible into their four years of freedom to get the most out of college experience. However, something that most students fail to add to their educational outfitting is financial preparedness; knowledge of topics concerning credit card use and debt management could be especially constructive as they areas apply to the majority of persons in postsecondary education.

House Bill 83 (BR388), which is currently in committee, poses to “require public postsecondary institutions to provide new undergraduates with information regarding credit cards and debt management and encourage them [the educational institutions] to conduct informational sessions” pertaining to credit cards and debt management for students to voluntarily attend. Basically, as apart of orientation week, incoming freshman and transfer students would receive some kind of reading material (pamphlet, booklet, brochure, etc…) concerning credit card use and debt management in their welcome packets and maybe have a session or two on financial awareness (particularly concerning credit card use and debt management).

To get some perspective on the effectiveness of the bill, I asked Dr. Hyungsoo Kim what his thoughts about the new bill were and how he speculated it would be of aid to incoming students. Dr. Kim teaches personal and family finance courses at the University of Kentucky through the Family Studies Department. “Obviously young folks need more knowledge and skills to manage their personal resources,” Kim says. There is a definite sense of prevention or catch-‘em-early mentality that this bill offers.

However, he also commented to me that he finds more than half of his undergraduate students do not work to support their lifestyle; most are still financially supported by parents or guardians. “The number one issue” he says is “actually they don’t manage because they don’t have any income… They don’t think they need this kind of thing…[They] don’t feel that it is real.” He believes that money management reading materials will lost on these incoming students because they will have a lack of interest in being budgeters sense the need to be financially responsible is not an urgent one.

A possible solution to this lack of interest would be to offer the same materials and voluntary sessions to outbound students who are looking to graduate. Kim acknowledges that, “as they get older, more exposed, they will need more information.” Nothing wakes up a graduating senior like smell of being financially independent, or in some cases financially cut-off, from his/her parents. A genuine concern for being financially stable after graduation could spark the desire to attend a lecture series by guest financial speakers, similar to how a job fair has more attending second semester juniors and graduating seniors.

Never-the-less, should it pass, HB 83 will have our freshman (and probably soon after our recycling bins) armed with provided reading material on subjects such as “How to Use Your Credit Card Responsibly” and “Pay Those Student Loans In a Timely Fashion.”