This one is really more of a “cast a wide net” query than an analysis.
With the Federal shutdown, students are affected in myriad ways. Getting tax documents can be trickier, for instance, and that impacts financial aid documentation. Some students are from families in which a significant chunk of income comes either through a government worker’s salary or a government contractor’s salary. (The latter face the prospect of going without back pay when all is said and done, adding injury to insult.) And that’s true in a college hours away from DC, in an area where the major military base shut down years ago. The impact is probably much more drastic in areas where the federal and federal-contract workforce is larger.
So, this one is aimed particularly at the financial aid and student accounts folk out there.
What are you doing to help students through the shutdown?
There’s never really a good time for a shutdown, but our semester starts on January 22. That adds some urgency to the situation. Depending on how much longer it drags on, stopgap measures may be hard to sustain.
Any helpful ideas would be appreciated!
