Kathleen McCartney, President of Smith, announced on Friday, Oct. 22 that student financial aid packages will no longer include loans, as they will be replaced entirely by grants from the college.
In an interview with The Sophian, McCartney discussed the implications of this change. “Last March I started speaking with the board about putting together an endowment working group to think about how to enhance our financial aid packages. We decided to do something really big and really bold,” she said. Beginning in the fall of 2022, students will no longer have to take out federal or institutional loans to attend Smith and will instead receive grants to meet their demonstrated need.
The decision to eliminate loans from financial aid packages came during an economically tumultuous time for the college and its students. President McCartney told The Sophian that “during the pandemic, we had a loss of revenues,” as did many businesses across the nation. But, “we have reserves” that she said are now “somewhat depleted” after being tapped into during the height of the pandemic. Despite all of this, the college’s endowment sits at approximately $2 billion, and in the last year, an anonymous alumna gifted the college $50 million on top of successful fundraising efforts. McCartney said that the gift “raised our ambitions for ourselves … it inspired us to think bigger.”
In addition to the elimination of loans, the college will annually offer qualifying, incoming first year students start-up grants, as well as a one-time grant to qualifying, graduating seniors in January and May of 2022.
There have been mixed reactions from seniors, as they will not benefit from the elimination of loans in future financial aid packages and will graduate with the same amount of debt as they would have before this change. One senior told The Sophian, “although I am happy for the students that the elimination of loans assists, I can’t help but be angry for myself and other seniors I know who have up to $20K in loans in our name from Smith. Seniors being included in this elimination of loans would be so helpful to me for the rest of my life.”
In response to this sentiment, another senior, when asked about their graduating class’s response to the news, said “there are always going to be unhappy people … but at least we’ve made it past the first step, and now we can go to the second step. Right now it should be like, okay great, this is perfect progress, and now let’s go on to this instead of criticizing it right out of the gate. I mean, I thought it was pretty damn revolutionary.”
McCartney told The Sophian “it’s my job as president” to work toward initiatives like these. She was also moved by her experience as “the first in her family to go to college.” When discussing those who work closely with her, she said financial aid is “everybody’s top priority.”
A junior shared opposing thoughts on the college’s intentions, explaining that “students have been demanding more financial aid for a while, especially since COVID hit. It’s sad that it took other colleges making similar moves to get Smith to finally listen … It makes me think it’s more of a PR move than actually caring about the students.”
Smith continues working on its financial aid offerings beyond eliminating loans. McCartney shared her goal of making the college need-blind in admissions. She said, “we are still raising money to be need-blind,” and expressed her hope that alumni will contribute to the fundraising required for this. McCartney also addressed the college’s ability to make the elimination of loans a permanent change in its financial aid packages. “When you make this investment, you want to make sure that you can do it in a sustained way. We did a lot of financial modeling to ensure that we could continue this program,” she said.
Alongside McCartney, Joanna May, the Vice President for Enrollment, spoke to The Sophian about the announcement. She said that this will “equalize our financial aid packages with a lot of the most selective schools in the country. And I think it really sends a strong message to students that this is what the institution cares about, that we care about students. We are taking money from our endowment and other things and putting it back into students. It is attractive to students as they think about a school that puts them first.” McCartney said, “when students come to visit Smith, they’re going to look at that library, they’re going to know that they don’t have to take out loans to come here – we’re expecting to see an increase in applications.”
This initiative to eliminate loans could open the school to students who might not have been able to afford it. A prospective student told The Sophian, “as a senior in high school from an urban area, I am thrilled about this decision. I think it’s an incredible opportunity for students from low-income areas, like myself, that might be apprehensive towards attending otherwise. The decision to remove student loans is going to benefit bright young women for generations to come, and it makes me even more excited to be a future ‘Smithie.’”
McCartney said, “when we voted to do this, everyone stood up and started applauding. I’m feeling emotional, everyone was emotional, every trustee … because we knew what we were doing was going to change lives.” She mentioned, in particular, how this change is “advancing our work on racial justice and equity … We know on average at Smith and across the nation that Black students and Latinx students borrow more money than white and Asian students. I think this is a significant action that we have taken” to address racial inequality at the college.
The student response, while mixed, seems to be overwhelmingly positive. A first-year student said “this news furthers my pride in the college, and it means that the funds that would have gone towards loans can now be put towards educational opportunities like travel or just general supplies like textbooks.”
McCartney said, “I don’t think you can imagine how proud I feel about this. I think the most important thing I’ve done in my professional life is what happened on Friday morning in that board meeting.”
