Lee University Administrator Presents Before Senate Panel
March 29, 2014–Washington, D.C.–An administrator from Lee University took part in a Senate hearing in Washington on Thursday to discuss growing student-loan debt, making the federal student-loan programs easier for borrowers to navigate, and increasing college access for lower-income students.
Marian Dill testifies before a Senate committee on student financial aid on March 27, 2014 (click on photo to enlarge)
Marian Malone Dill, Director of Student Financial Aid at Lee, spoke to members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The committee included Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) as chairman and Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander as the ranking Republican. According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, which reported on the hearing, the committee is, “taking initial steps toward reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, (and) held the hearing with panelists who promoted ways to improve federal student aid. Suggestions included a simplified loan-repayment plan, additional information about borrowers’ options, and counseling to help guide students through the student-loan process, before and after taking out a loan. The practices of loan-repayment servicers and policies that allow overborrowing also came under fire during the wide-ranging discussion.”
Thursday’s hearing followed the announcement of several pieces of legislation aimed at strengthening the federal student-loan programs and reducing debt.
The hearing, which was televised live at 10:00 a.m. EST on C-SPAN, focused on four panelists, including Dill. During her presentation, she advocated for four “Student Success Strategies,” which included mandatory counseling before students incur student loan debt, institutional limitations, re-structuring the Parents Plus loans system, and income-based repayment of student loans. She also offered three “practical administrative shifts” that would include a single web portal where students could, “access information about all federal, private, and institutional loans,” and an overhaul of the student loan entrance and exit counseling strategies.
Dill concluded her remarks by stating, “I hope my testimony will provide insight into student loan policies that can better serve our students.”
Senator Harkin stated to the panel, “You have touched on all the aspects we’re trying to grapple with when it comes to student loans. Thank you so much.”
Later in the hearing, Senator Alexander stated, “It’s important for students to know, as they think about going to college, that it can be affordable. Most students don’t have to borrow too much money if they borrow wisely.”
Dill’s invitation to address the committee came from Alexander last week and explained the purpose of the hearing was to, “examine all aspects of the federal student loan program, touching on issues ranging from origination, counseling, repayment loans, servicing, collections, and shared accountability.” The correspondence further requested that she provide, “an overview of the current system from your perspective as a financial aid administrator, with particular focus on aspects of the process that are working well for all students, and where the process can be improved.”
Marion Dill came to Lee in 1998 and previously served as assistant director of financial aid. Currently she is membership chair for the Southern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (SASFAA). She was recently elected SASFAA vice president and will assume the role on July 1. She is also a member of TASFAA, the Tennessee Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, where she has held the positions of President, Treasurer, District Chair and Chair of the Financial Aid Awareness Committee.
–Cameron Fisher, Church of God Communications
