Credit clampdown

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Credit card solicitors haven’t been a problem on campus in years, but reality is no hurdle for the Arizona legislature. House Bill 2518, a proposal to ban credit card marketing on campus at Arizona’s universities passed the Higher Education subcommittee this week. Easy money and cheap debt are temptations to anyone ð- and nobody knows that better than the legislature itself, which has already run up a bill of its own in the millions of dollars. Banning marketers might sound like a great idea, but free gifts and dumb gimmicks will always exist; if marketers aren’t on campus, they’ll be on University Boulevard or Fourth Avenue. While student credit card debt is a problem, trying to ban credit card marketing is about as effective as most bans – not very. Instead, the university ought to aim to educate students on the risks of credit card debt and the benefits of fiscal responsibility. For tackling a non-existent problem on a campus with real issues, the Arizona state legislature swipes its card for a Fail.

A textbook maneuver from ASA

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But wait – there’s more! State Bill 1175 and House Bill 2230, currently being pushed by the Arizona Students Association, would require textbook publishers to provide more information on book prices to university faculty. Additionally, the bill would force textbook publishers to offer more information on the differences between current and previous textbook editions and force publishers to offer bundled textbook and supplemental materials separately in an effort to expand student choice without increasing costs. Brute-forcing big bad publishers into submission will no doubt be popular with students, but we can’t help but think there’s a bigger problem if tenured Ph.Ds start getting hoodwinked by textbook salesmen every year. Cheap books are nice, but cheapening education isn’t – and there are valid reasons that professors may opt for more expensive texts. Until this flashy bill actually saves students some cash, it gets an Incomplete.

Figuring out the FAFSA

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The UA is one of 30 locations in Arizona hosting “”College Goal Sunday”” on February 10, an event that helps prospective students navigate their way through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. As any student who has had to fill out a FAFSA can attest, the complicated financial forms can be overwhelming. The event, to be held in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering building, 1130 N. Mountain Ave., will provide presentations in both Spanish and English, along with computer access for enterprising students who want to submit their FAFSAs that day. The event is free and all students are welcome, but the creators of the event are especially encouraging first-generation students and low-income families to attend, as those two groups often have a harder time paying for school and could benefit from FAFSA the most. Making important financial information not only available but easier to understand nets the UA and the creators of College Goal Sunday a Pass.

Failing the FAFSA

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Then again, something’s gone horribly wrong when it takes an all-day event across the state to help students fill out a prohibitively large pile of paperwork. The FAFSA is a redundant, confusing stack of forms estimated to waste over 100 million hours of otherwise productive time each year on filling in grids and checking boxes. Worse, the FAFSA could easily be reduced to a tiny check box on every family’s federal income tax returns. The bloated, backwards FAFSA deserves a big fat Fail.