On Thursday, March 26, Meghan Reilly ’20 emailed members of Union’s Administration: President David Harris; Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Fran’Cee Brown-McClure; Vice President for Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrolment, Matthew Malatesta ’91; and Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean for the Faculty, Strom Thacker, regarding changes made to the amount of money that students have been allocated through their financial aid packages and scholarships. As per her request, the Concordiensis is publishing the letter sent by her.

Reilly’s open-letter is as follows:

“Hello,

I wanted to reach out about spring term tuition and financial aid:

First, I do acknowledge that Union has provided some level of refund for room and board, and is granting students spring term work study and a ‘spring term allowance’ of $1,323. However, since students are still required to pay such a high cost of tuition, I am extremely concerned with the fact that the college chose to reduce students’ scholarships, money that is not required to be paid back, and not federal loans where applicable.

I strongly believe that the college should take into consideration the potential economic implications of students continuing to take on such high amounts of loans in the current conditions, and I would expect that an institution of Union’s caliber would at the very least reduce the amount of scholarship and loans together, proportionately, if not allow students to keep the same amount of scholarship money as other terms and allow students to reduce, or not take out at all, their federal loans this term.

I have had a number of students reach out to me recently, expressing their shock and fears about the college’s changes to their financial aid packages and scholarships. While the college maintains that the quality of education this term will be to a similar standard, and that the experience will be “alternative,” students do not necessarily share these sentiments, in particular when their aid packages have been reduced to the extent of several thousand dollars.

I am extremely disappointed with Union College’s choice to reduce students’ scholarships so significantly without greatly reducing the cost of tuition. I do not feel that these decisions are a reflection of the ethos of the college, and as such am disheartened by some of the choices that the college has made recently in regards to tuition and scholarship / financial aid packages. While I understand that this situation is unprecedented, I still hold Union College to a high standard and expect that the college will continue to meet the needs of its students accordingly in this trying time, and remain open and willing to implement feedback.

Best,

Meghan Reilly”