Financial crisis hits SAIS
School and students adjust
Washington’s stimulus package will do little in the way of protecting a majority of SAIS students. While the financial crisis has provided much fodder for class and policy discussions, at a school where 40% of the student body consists of international students, the crisis has hit home. International students have faced currency crises in their home countries while American students have been vulnerable to loss of wealth as the Dow plummets and job insecurity increases.
Cost of attendance is not cheap. Students pay a staggering US$33,178 per year for tuition alone. SAIS estimates that including additional yearly costs, for things such as health insurance, books, and room and board, students at the DC campus have a total cost of US$56,940 per academic year. Students in Bologna are expected to have a yearly cost of € 41,565, or roughly US$53,542.
While some students request no financial aid, an overwhelming majority seeks assistance to pay for their SAIS education. Financial aid is provided primarily in the form of loans and fellowships. US citizens may apply for student and personal loans, while international students only qualify for loans from US banks if they are able to find an American to serve as guarantor. Fellowship money need not be repaid and is the more attractive segment of a financial aid package. Money for fellowships comes from endowments and due to the current financial crisis, these endowments, like many other investments, have significantly decreased in value. This academic year the SAIS Administration observed a significant reduction in returns from endowments.
To combat the reduction in assets available for student aid, the SAIS Office of Development has launched an aggressive fundraising campaign to replenish the pot. The campaign has been fairly successful thus far; however, that money is far from guaranteed and will only be distributed in approximately three to five years from now.
Despite SAIS’s status as part of Johns Hopkins University, the financial assistance that SAIS’s DC campus provides to students comes only from SAIS endowments. This funding is completely separate from other schools, such as JHU Medical School or the School of Music. Furthermore, the SAIS Bologna and Nanjing campuses are also expected to independently provide financial aid to students studying in Italy and China, respectively. According to Dean Wilson, SAIS has not been hit the hardest and the main campus administration will not supply additional funds to SAIS students that are facing financial adversity.
In addition to launching the fundraising campaign, the SAIS administration created two additional initiatives to address student needs. Traditionally, international students have relied on savings and loans from their home countries. This makes international students particularly vulnerable to exchange rate differences.
Korean students saw the value of their savings slashed by almost 50% when the Korean Won (KRW) lost most of its value in relation to the US dollar. The magnitude of such a financial loss could have placed an overwhelming burden on these students, prohibiting their continued attendance and possibly impacting their academic performance. SAIS’s administration stepped in and provided aid to curb withdrawal of Korean students.
Bart Dakulich, Director of Finance and Administration at SAIS Bologna, helped students that hold EU citizenship secure low interest UniCredit student loans to continue their second year at SAIS’s DC. Unfortunately, the value of the loans that these students secured for their expenses declined significantly, due to the decline in the value of the Euro in relation to the US dollar. Once again, the SAIS administration was able to temporarily help students so that they could continue their studies.
In these two instances, the SAIS administration succeeded in helping students in financial peril and are continuing to plan for the class of 2011.
The SAIS administration simultaneously cut costs in order to give as much help to current and incoming students as in previous years. For example, less expensive caterers were contracted for SAIS events and the SAIS catalogue will now arrive in admitted students’ email boxes instead of in the mail. Not printing the SAIS catalogue saves the school approximately $70,000 as well as lots of trees!
Staff across the board made sacrifices in order to assist students. The staff holiday party, for one, was a more subdued affair, according to Noemi Crespo, Director of Financial Aid.
The SAIS Career Services office created initiatives to facilitate current students long-term career plans, to create winning resumes, get summer internships, and eventually a full-time job. The Office of Career Services has also designated one person in their office to work exclusively with recent SAIS grads and alumni to ensure that they find jobs. Unfortunately, staff, students and faculty alike have been adversely affected by this current economic downturn. However, the SAIS global community has pulled together to help and support each other any way they can.
Masha Bolotinskaya is a member of the Central Asia Caucusus Institute at SAIS.
Filed Under: February 2009
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