Tidewater Community College by Courtney Subramanian
Deborah DiCroce, president of Tidewater Community College, said she created the two-step policy as a way to help students "connect the dots" between taking out money and paying it back later. Courtney Subramanian/MEDILL
NORFOLK, Va. – Student loan debt is outpacing credit card debt this year, and one community college in Norfolk, Va., is helping students deal with the burden of financing higher education.
Tidewater Community College is a small school, but its president believes she has an answer to a big problem: student debt. To help students deal with the cost of college, TCC is launching a policy this fall that requires students to complete a budget worksheet as a part of the counseling process to receive student loans.
TCC President Deborach DiCroce, who created the new program, says it was a no-brainer to implement a program to help students address the tens of millions of dollars in loans doled out each year at the school.
The class of 2011 is graduating with an average of $27,000 in loans, according to financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz.
“There’s this expectation that you’re going to have to repay that money whether you complete your goal or not,” DiCroce says. “So wouldn’t it make sense to focus on the completion of the goal as you make this investment in your education?”
Another objective is to make students take a hard look at just how much money they’re borrowing, DiCroce adds.
The process requires students to quantify monthly expenses, determine their anticipated salaries and calculate a repayment plan. It uses the Virginia Education Wizard, an online tool created by Virginia’s Community Colleges to estimate career salaries.
“It’s not punitive. We will in no way compromise the intent of the federal loan program,” DiCroce says. “In fact, we think by what we’re doing we’re enhancing it and giving others a mechanism for looking at how they might enhance it as well.”
Cherokee Bailey, 24, and Reason Chandler, 25 said the new program will make students more accountable in personal finances and help them with responsible borrowing. Courtney Subramanian/MEDILL
Reason Chandler is a 25-year-old recipient of tuition reimbursement under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and has been at Tidewater for two years studying social sciences. He’s already calculated his expenses, but plans to continue borrowing when he attends Virginia Commonwealth University next year.
“I calculated for when I do graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University and I’ll have maybe about a couple thousand left each a month,” he said. “It’s given me a great outlook on my future.”
Another Tidewater student, 24-year-old Cherokee Bailey, first began managing her finances through the TRIO program, a federally funded outreach initiative that helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Bailey, who has defaulted on her loans before, says the Tidewater program allowed her to see she has more debt than she realized.
“It’s so easy to not be aware of those things because you’ve been through so many systems and had so many people handling your paperwork,” she says.
Bailey says the TCC program allows her to keep track of everything.
“It gives you a step-by-step process on how to do it,” she said. “So you can make sure that all your ducks are in a row.” She says that can be empowering for students.
“This form helps them to take control of it a little bit more and not just rely on their parents to give them money and things of that nature,” Bailey said.
DiCroce says TCC is the only college with a policy of this type, and the school has received nearly 100 phone calls about using the new policy as a model.
“Whether it’s the proverbial mortgage as a part of the American dream, whether it’s the purchase of the automobile as a part of the American dream –- education is that level of investment,” DiCroce says. “So let’s do it with our eyes open, let’s do it with a focus of responsible borrowing and repayment.”
DiCroce said that’s a skill to apply to any investment in the future.