Graphic reports on Pepperdine fin aid policy
So occasionally a news story falls into my lap accidentally. I was at work when I received an email on my phone from Pepperdine’s Office of Financial Assistance alerting me that my financial aid award had been revised. Upon inspection, I realized my departmental scholarship — a merit scholarship from the Communication Division for my work at the student newspaper — had been reduced from $4,000 to a mere $2,000. Why? Because of a “guideline” dictating that institutional scholarships can be applied only to tuition charges, and my merit scholarships exceeded tuition.
I smelled a news story. Hundreds of students at Pepperdine feel the effects of this policy. Although, indeed, it exists to provide a standard of equal access to aid for all students, it doesn’t exactly send the right message to students like me. I take out loans every year to pay for my education, so the opportunity to exchange labor (the Graphic) for scholarships has been an attractive option for me every semester I’ve attended Pepperdine. The revision to my financial aid leaves me working an entire semester as Online Managing Editor for $2,000 — which I suspect is far below minimum wage for the hours I put in.
What do you think?
