Brown's debt policy to ease up

Students and their families at Brown University are getting a little more time to pay their bills, as economic circumstances make financing an education a bit more difficult.

The school announced on Oct. 31 that it would implement a new initiative during its advanced registration which would allow students with up to $7,500 of debt to pre-register for classes.

Penn has no plans to adjust its policy, which bars students who have a balance greater than $1,000 from advance registration.

Brown's previous policy mirrored Penn's - students with more than $1,000 of debt were put on financial hold and were prevented from registering in advance.

"It's a step that we're taking in the immediate term to try to give students and their families who are experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the economic upheaval more time with our financial aid office to work out solutions for them to finish out the academic year," said Deputy Provost of Brown Vincent Tompkins.

According to Tompkins, financial stress was a significant issue for a number of Brown students, prompting the Provost's office to brainstorm for creative solutions to ease the tensions.

"I think we would agree with them that in this kind of troubled economic time that we have to really prepare to work with families who may have trouble with the bills," said Bill Schilling, director of financial aid at Penn.

"But I think that rather than just implement an across-the-board excuse for past due payments, we'd rather initiate something that results in a conversation with the student and family to see if there's something we can do," he added.

Schilling said the University so far has not seen more cases of financial difficulties compared to past years. However, he anticipates that economic signs indicating a possible rise in unemployment may affect Penn students' abilities to pay in the near future.

If that happens, Schilling said Penn will re-evaluate students' aid eligibility to try to alleviate any pressure.

"It makes me wonder if Penn raises the amount of outstanding debt they allow, whether the school itself will be worse off in debt and whether people will take advantage of the policy," said Nursing sophomore Alexis Hoffa.

"But at the same time, not being able to pay, especially with the current economic crisis, should not prevent students from getting an education," she added.

Brown has not yet determined whether it will continue the policy in future semesters and will make that decision when advanced registration for fall 2009 arrives next spring.

"Our hope, of course, is that the economy will turn around and that the need for this will diminish," said Tompkins.

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