Chapter 3 - ISFAA and the Growth of the Profession

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Indiana cannot boast a Lady Anne Mowlson and her support for a poor scholar at Harvard University in 1643. Neither can Indiana take credit for the passage of the National Defense Education Act in 1958, nor the fashioning of the first need analysis document. But Indiana's proud history of professionalism is everywhere apparent.

Since 1935, thoughtful Indiana educators have sought means of identifying scholarship talent and making awards to impecunious students. Without any formal system of need analysis available in the 1930's and 1940's, Indiana colleges were fashioning their scholarship applications to ask questions about family income and assets, numbers of dependents, and support available to students. Awards available from non-federal sources, state, corporate, and institutional, were awarded on a composite analysis of scholarship and need. Not only were colleges and universities making independent judgments on this information but also they were, through their state association, sharing their standards for such selection.

Hoosiers Take Part in Early Professional Gatherings

In the early 1950's, institutions from the Big Ten and Big Eight conducted a series of annual meetings, which caught the attention of institutions from the midwest to the far west and east. In 1952, a number of administrators met at Purdue to informally exchange information. They were concerned with ways of preventing the use of student aid as a means of buying athletes. Byron Doenges of Indiana University co-chaired the meeting with Purdue officials.25 Indiana aid administrators such as Doenges and Jean Harvey of Purdue were leaders in promoting these cooperative meetings. Harvey remembers a Big Ten-Big Eight meeting at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in October 1953.26 John Monro of Harvard was on hand to discuss possibilities of a need analysis system, which was born in the 1954-55 school year. Doenges remembers assisting in the development of the CSS need analysis system. He remembers working with Monro, Homer Babbidge, Jr. of Yale, and Harriet Hudson of Randolph-Macon in 1954, 1955, and 1956.

Byron Doenges resigned in February 1955 as Indiana University's Director of Scholarships and Loans in order to give full time to his new assignment at Indiana University, Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He continued to work as a consultant with the College Scholarship Service and the U. S. Office of Education during the late fifties. From 1958-59 he took leave from Indiana University in order to serve as Program Development Head of the National Defense Student Loan Program in Washington. While in this position he participated in the development of all aspects of the NDSLP, including the writing of promotional material, directing regional informational meetings throughout the country, and allocating the first $43 million appropriated by the Congress for the NDSL program.

One of the earliest publications of financial aid literature was the manual published by the College Scholarship Service. The procedure and practices of aid administration prescribed in this manual became the benchmarks of the national profession. Jean Harvey was a member of a subcommittee of college and secondary school administrators, which developed the manual used in 1957-58.27 Indiana developed its own solution to overlap candidates through its first choice system developed in the 1950's. All of this was happening long before the advent of the NDSL program in 1958. When the first sample application for the NDSL program was designed in 1958 it was indeed a first student financial aid application for many institutions, which embraced the sample form and used it in the administration of their first aid program. Not so in Indiana. Here all ISFAA members were already requiring an aid application, a CSS Parents Confidential Statement. They therefore found unnecessary any further NDSL applications.

Hoosiers Serve on Early Selection Committees for National Scholarships

Also, at this time, many corporate and national scholarship programs were emerging. The General Motors Scholarship Program, introduced in 1956, literally rocked the profession. The awards were sizeable, the program excellently administered. General Motors set the pace for other programs to follow. Jean Harvey was a member of an early selection committee for General Motors. In 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program adopted an award based on scholarship testing and a stipend based on need. Byron Doenges played a role in the development of procedures for determining stipends for both the General Motors and National Merit Scholarship Programs. He spent many weekends during the winter and spring of 1954 through 1957 in Princeton with John Monro and others on this work.

State scholarship programs began emerging in the mid to late 1950's. Indiana was not a pioneer state but did feel the vibrations from Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Josephine Ferguson at Valparaiso University was asked to assist in the fashioning of the Rhode Island Program and Connecticut State Program and interchanged ideas from Indiana with states in the east. She served on the Need Analysis Group for these and other programs administered by the Educational Testing Service.

Beginnings of CSS and MASFAA in the 1950s and 1960s

In 1954, the College Scholarship Service was formed and several Indiana institutions joined from the outset. Saint Mary's College and Saint Joseph's College of Indiana were early CSS members; 28 and DePauw, Saint Mary's, Notre Dame, VaIparaiso, Wabash, and Saint Joseph's were early College Board members. In 1957, several Indiana colleges adopted a formal need analysis--the CSS system. By this time a number of the Indiana colleges were requiring the College Board examinations. Although perceived by many as an eastern organization in those years, the College Board did begin to include Midwest representatives on its CSS committee, such as Rodney Harrison of the Ohio State University and Josephine Ferguson.

Eighty persons attended a 1960 meeting of the Big Ten-Big Eight at the University of Colorado at Boulder with a goodly representation from Indiana. In 1962, before the passage of the Higher Education Act, the Big Ten-Big Eight group was hosted by Purdue University and the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators was founded. George W. Risty of the University of Minnesota was elected the first president.

The Indiana Association, meantime, was active in publishing rosters to announce scholarships and conducting meetings for parents and students. It also joined with the Indiana Committee on High School College Cooperation to publish handbooks for high school counselors and to otherwise promote aid for students in the state.

Midwest College Compact Originates in Indiana

There was at this time, in the early 1960's, much concern about "buying" students and a group called the College Compact on Financial Aid was formed. Promoted by Josephine Ferguson of Valparaiso University and Richard Hopwood of the University of Chicago, twenty-two Indiana colleges eventually joined this group of colleges, which was united in the conviction that:

their financial aid programs exist primarily to provide financial assistance to students who, without such aid, would be unable to attend their colleges. In an effort to achieve greater uniformity and equity in the allocation of financial aid funds, and to promote greater understanding on the part of parents, students and . . .29

Information about the Midwest Compact was distributed to prospective students by the use of a brochure, which contained a Statement of Principles and Practices and a list of participating schools. A copy of the Midwest Compact on College Financial Aid is found in Appendix V.

Professional Activities in the 1960s

At about the same time, Indiana colleges were active in the Commission V on Student Financial Aid of the American Personnel and Guidance Association. Senator Vance Hartke of Indiana was co-sponsoring the Higher Education Act of 1965 and Indiana colleges, under the auspices of the American Personal and Guidance Association, were testifying on behalf of that 1egislation.30 And the story goes on and on. In the mid-1960's, Indiana financial aid administrators assumed other national leadership roles.

During the first quarter century of its history the state association through its members gave impetus to the growth of the profession in the Midwest region and throughout the nation. They assisted in shaping the values, which became the profession's code of ethics; they encouraged interstate and inter-regional cooperation similar to the cooperation they had achieved at home.

Indiana University Pioneers in Training

As the Association moved into its second twenty-five years, the tradition of leadership went on. Hoosiers continued to share their influence with those outside their state boundaries. In 1964, the College Scholarship Service in an effort to stimulate training for the profession, co-sponsored a week-long training effort with the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ronald Brown, Director of Financial Aid at Boulder, hosted the session. Donovan Allen, Financial Aid Director at Indiana University, was asked to attend and observe the training workshop with the expectation of hosting a similar meeting in Indiana the following year. The 1965 training workshop at Indiana University developed a curriculum, which serves as a model for week-long basic training to the present time. It covered the history and principles of aid, discussion of state programs, federal programs, and corporate and foundation programs. It included need analysis training and other agenda items, which are still included in basic training sessions now, twenty years later. The workshop was co-sponsored for its first two years by CSS and Indiana University. In 1967, CSS withdrew its sponsorship as its purpose was achieved in establishing a solid training activity. This very successful conference was repeated at Indiana University in 1967, 1968, and 1969. In 1969, Edson Sample, who had succeeded Allen as Indiana University's Director, and who was then the President of the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, offered the sponsorship of the workshop to MASFAA. MASFAA accepted responsibility for the effort and annual basic training sessions have continued. The location of the workshop is rotated between a number of public and private institutions in the different MASFA A states.

Subsequent to the establishment of this basic training opportunity in the midwest, other regional associations of student financial aid administrators began week-long training sessions following the outline of the workshop conducted at Indiana University. Twenty years after the pioneering effort of the CSS, responsibility for these essential workshops conducted across the country is shared by NASFAA and the regional associations. Financial support has been given by the U. S. Department of Education through its contract for training with NASFAA. This cooperative training venture existed from 1974 through January 31, 1984 when the contract was not renewed by the Department of Education.

Other Training at Indiana University

Indiana University, through its officials, has responded to training needs in student financial aid in other ways. In 1968, under the direction of William Walters, the Bursar at Indiana University, Indiana University and Region V of the Department of Education jointly sponsored the first National Defense Student Loan Billing and Collection Conference. The NDSL Program was then in its tenth year and default rates were beginning to threaten the future of the program. Lloyd Keisler, Controller of the University and an active leader in the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and other Indiana University officials aided in the effort. This billing and collection conference was moved to other locations such as Marquette University in Milwaukee and returned to Indiana University in 1971. It was shortly after the 1971 conference that NACUBO with sponsorship of the U. S. Department of Education expanded the conferences to five per year held in different parts of the country. Keisler continued his leadership in this effort until his retirement.

Even though responsibility for the Loan Collection Conferences had shifted from Indiana University to NACUBO, officials at the University grew increasingly disappointed when the design of the NACUBO agenda was modified to encompass NDSL administration with less emphasis on billing and collection techniques. At the same time, under the direction of Indiana University's Steve Beard, Director of the Office of Student Loan Administration, and James Fariss, Collection Manager, the University had developed a highly computerized and sophisticated billing and collection administration. In 1982, Indiana University again assumed leadership when it called for a new series of billing and collection conferences. The first of a new series of conferences was conducted at the University in November 1982. All Indiana institutions were invited as well as all Big Ten and other institutions in the Midwest. Repeating the meeting in 1983 and in 1984, invitations were extended to all institutions across the nation participating in the NDSL Program. The Region V Office of the Department of Education was at that time also involved in a default reduction effort and lent support to the meetings.

Sample Contributes to Student Financial Aid Profession

Contributions of Edson Sample to the growth of the profession in the nation have been evident elsewhere. During his term as MASFAA President (1969-70) the Midwest Association assumed sponsorship of the training workshop, established the Distinguished Service Award to recognize outstanding financial aid administrators, published its first monograph, and began the tradition of providing pocket calendars, which serve each day as a reminder of one's membership in a professional association. In 1974-75, he was President of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. It was during this period that NASFAA began its actions to move from a dues structure based on individual memberships to one based on institutional dues. He has chaired and served on numerous NASFAA committees. Sample is responsible for the idea of the Federal Monitor and for the NASFAA Hotline--both very useful techniques for providing information to the NASFAA membership. In addition to service in MASFAA and NASFAA, Sample has held several important positions in CSS including the Vice Chairmanships of the CSS Council and the Committee on Need Assessment Procedures. Recently, he served as Chairman of the CSS Thirtieth Anniversary Steering Committee. Other assignments have included, for example, service on the United Student Aid Funds Advisory Council, membership on the Cabot Corporation Scholarship Committee, and the Chairmanship of the Society for the Advancement of Financial Aid Management in Higher Education. At home, it was Sample who in May of 1968 first suggested that the essential direction of ISFAA should change from one of administrative concerns to one of professional development. Through his years in student financial aid, dating from 1961, Sample has kept Indiana interests at the forefront of the fledgling profession.

Purdue University Stimulates Professional Growth

Just as Indiana University has provided much leadership to the growth of the profession its sister institution, Purdue University, has made very appreciable contributions. As mentioned earlier, MASFAA was organized at Purdue University and Jean Harvey and Nelson Parkhurst contributed much. Later, however, it was Richard Tombaugh and Donald Holec who brought the further attention of the nation on Indiana student financial aid leadership.

While Tombaugh was Director of Financial Aid at Purdue, the first NASFAA Central Office and Placement Service was located there in October of 1970. A completely voluntary effort on the part of Tombaugh and Purdue, the NASFAA Central Office activities took their genesis at Purdue. Tombaugh left Purdue in 1972 to become Associate Director of Financial Aid at George Washington University in Washington, D. C. Through a joint appointment with GWU, Tombaugh conducted NASFAA affairs from his office at the University until NASFAA hired him on a full time basis on January 1, 1974.

Another financial aid director at Purdue University has made important contributions to the profession. Donald Holec came to Indiana in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin where he had been Associate Director. He served as Purdue's director until December 1, 1984. Upon his arrival in Indiana he immediately began to establish himself as a leader and served as President of MASFAA. In NASFAA he was an outstanding Chairman of the Title IV Committee and from that position he was appointed Director of the Commission on Governmental Affairs. His leadership of the Title IV Committee in 1978-79 earned that committee the Committee of the Year Award from NASFAA. He served as NASFAA President during 1981-82. Important CSS committee assignments have included the Committee on Need Assessment Procedures and the Software Advisory Committee. He has served on the CSS Regional Assembly governing body, been a consultant to the Advanced Technology company, and was a member of the Cabot Corporation Scholarship Committee.

Ball State University's Beck and Casazza Give Assistance

Norman Beck, the Financial Aid Director at Ball State University until 1981, also provided leadership to the profession. He has been the only practicing financial aid administrator appointed to the State Scholarship Commission other than Josephine Ferguson who only served a few months. He served as president of MASFAA and was elected the President-Elect of NASFAA. Beck was obligated to resign his NASFAA post when he changed positions at Ball State and was no longer employed in financial aid administration. Prior to his election to the NASFAA position he held a number of important committee and commission assignments. He has been Chairman of the College Scholarship Service Assembly and Council and presently is a member of the Board of Trustees of The College Board.

Ball State University has continued to provide service to the profession. In 1973, the MASFAA training workshop was conducted there under the leadership of Clarence Casazza. Casazza has also held important positions in the regional CSS governance structure and served on a number of MASFAA and NASFAA committees.

Other ISFAA Members Active

In 1978, Joseph Russo, previously at Genesee Community College in New York came to the University of Notre Dame as Director of Financial Aid. Eager to develop a graduate level course in financial aid administration, Russo has successfully given such a course at Notre Dame in the summers of 1982, 1983, and 1984. Indiana University's practicum in the administration of student financial aid is a part of its program in the administration of higher education.

The College Scholarship Service has selected Indiana for the site of two conferences. One of the first CSS workshops in the Midwest was held at Valparaiso University in 1966. The first CSS colloquium ever held was at French Lick in 1962 on the topic: "Student Financial Aid and National Purpose."

Each decade of ISFAA's history has produced men and women with unique talents. Building on the cumulative accomplishments of those who went before them, these Hoosiers have all contributed to making ISFAA and the regional and national associations what they are today.

Each president listed in Appendix VI has in his or her own way helped shape the profession. But there were many more, some who were around for long and some who touched ISFAA only briefly, who left a permanent mark on the profession.

ISFAA Members Play Important Role in NASFAA

Earlier it was noted that Richard L. Tombaugh, while at Purdue University, played a key role in the establishment of the Washington Office of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). His role as first Executive Secretary of that group was only one of the many leadership roles, which would be occupied by ISFAA members.

Donald E. Holec, also of Purdue, and Edson W. Sample of Indiana University both served as President of the National Association. Both men have also been given high honors being named recipients of Distinguished Service Awards and Sample receiving the Meritorious Service Award. Both Holec and Sample also served on numerous key committees of NASFAA through the years. Other Hoosiers, Barbara Thompson of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Jimmy L. Ross of Indiana University-Bloomington have been involved in committee activity for NASFAA.

First NASAA Experienceship

Walter Schmucker of Goshen College was chosen for the first Experienceship to NASFAA and carried out his assignment at a crucial time in NASFAA's development. His tenure in the Washington Office spanned the time between the services of Tombaugh and the coming of Dallas Martin. His influence on NASFAA during this evolutionary period was significant.

Publications for NASFAA

Joseph Russo of Notre Dame and Norman E. Beck of Ball State both have been active in the publications of NASFAA, both serving on the editorial board of the Journal.

Sample was also a dominant figure in the development of the NASFAA Fact Book, an invaluable record of archival significance, and also the development of a Manual of Policies and Procedures. Both he and Tombaugh served as Newsletter editors, 'Sample from 1971 to 1974, and Tombaugh in 1974-75.

Harvey Grotrian, at one time very active in ISFAA, was responsible for a major research effort of NASFAA. He completed a definitive study of the profession in his Survey of the Profession completed in 1978.

Contributions of ISFAA members began early in NASFAA's history and have continued throughout the two decades of its existence.

ISFAA Members Support Regional Association

ISFAA members have worked closely with professional groups at all levels. The Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators took its beginning in Indiana, at Purdue University. A few current ISFAA members were present at that organizational meeting. Since that time, ISFAA members have continuously given freely of their creative ideas and their hard work to support the regional association. Donovan Allen, Edson Sample, Norman Beck, and Donald Holec have served as President of the group. Judy Taylor of Purdue, Harriet Whittenberg of Marion College, and Pat Jeffers of St. Francis College served as delegates at large. Richard Bellows is currently a delegate at large. Sample, Beck, and Holec have received the highest honor MASFAA confers, the Distinguished Service Award. Josephine Ferguson was presented a Special Award by MASFAA in 1976.

Editorship of the MASFAA Newsletter has been held by three members of the Indiana University staff. Edson Sample edited the Newsletter from February 1967 through September 1969. Stephen Arthur and Susan Pugh each edited the Newsletter during periods in the 1970s.

A host of other Hoosiers have served on key committees for MASFAA. Richard Tombaugh of Purdue University, Earl Smith of Indiana University, Brother Kieran Ryan of the University of Notre Dame, Roger Meade of Ball State University, Walter Akhurst of Franklin College, and William Calloway of Indiana State University-Evansville all worked hard at a variety of committee assignments. In addition to those already mentioned, Clarence Casazza of Ball State University, Jimmy Ross of Indiana University, as well as Richard Bellows of Manchester College, Linda Handy of Indiana Central University, Harriet Whittenberg of Marion College, and Joseph Russo of the University of Notre Dame all served as chairpersons of key committees and provided leadership and direction on such matters as Professional Development, Awards, Constitution, and Conference Program.31

The many, many contributions to MASFAA by Indiana representatives is indicative not only of the level of professionalism this state has had to offer, but also of the attitudes of the individual institutions of the state which released their aid directors to make these many contributions.

Some Have Moved to Prominent Positions Outside of Indiana

No ISFAA history would be complete without mention of Robert Sinnaeve, first a Director of Aid at the University of Notre Dame, for a time Executive Secretary of SSACI, and later Vice President of the United Student Aid Funds. Donovan Allen, Director of Financial Aid at Indiana University went on to serve the U. S. Office of Education as head of the College Work-Study Program. Richard Tombaugh, who followed the Harvey-Moreland era as Director at Purdue University, served as Deputy Director for Financial Aid Programs in the U. S. Office of Education before becoming the first Executive Secretary of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Harvey Grotrian, who while at Valparaiso University missed becoming President of ISFAA because of his move to Michigan, went on to serve as President of the Michigan Association and later as President of MASFAA. G. David Hunt, Financial Aid Director at DePauw University, served briefly as Executive Secretary of SSACI and was twice ISFAA President before assuming the position of Financial Aid Director at Rice University in Texas.

It Took Many to Build Today's ISFAA

And so it was with Linda Handy of Indiana Central University, Harriet Whittenberg of Marion College, Susan Pugh of Indiana University, Jimmy Ross also of Indiana University, Clarence Casazza of Ball State University, Richard Bellows of Manchester College, Walter Schmucker of Goshen College--all of whom have been very active in the profession well beyond Indiana's borders. And there are so many others who will be long remembered because of their endless work that has made ISFAA what it is today.

In the 1950s'in addition to the many individuals already named, there was Paul Bowman, for many years in charge of admissions and aid at Manchester College; Frank Blanning, who played the same dual role at Hanover College; and Lowell Hildebrand of Wabash College. In the 1960s, Brother Kieran Ryan of the University of Notre Dame; Father Charles Robbins of St. Joseph College; Ed Teets of Franklin College; Ralph Ross of Rose Hulman College; and Earl Smith of Valparaiso and Indiana Universities are well remembered. From the 1970s many are still around. Who will forget the initiative and energy of those three great women from Indiana University: Shirley Boardman, Alice Duncan, and Susan Pugh. The University of Notre Dame, Huntington College, DePauw University, and St. Meinrad contributed four more loyal and energetic women in the persons of June McCauslin, Charlotte Singer, Thursa Evans, and Helen Hagedorn. And there were H. L. Baker from Anderson College, Charles Bedford from Hanover College, William Ehrich from Indiana University East and Earlham College, Roy Schuckman from Earlham College, Clark Defler from Indiana University Northwest, Larry McDaniel from Indiana University at South Bend. Only space and time prevents the mention of so many more.

The leaders for the 1980s are still moving to the center stage of the profession. We will hear much more from them: from the two dynamic Linda Handy from Indiana Central University and Maxwell from Ball State University; from Stephen Morris at Indiana University; Mark Franke of Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne; Patti Hochstetler of Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing and Susan McKinley of Purdue University.

And so the story goes on and on. This is not intended to be, nor could it be, a complete story of all of those ISFAA members who have molded and continue to influence the body of knowledge which we now call student financial aid. Surely no chapter in student financial aid is complete without noting the immense contributions of Hoosier professionals.

USAF From Efforts of Hoosiers

The United Student Aid Fund (USAF), which foreshadowed the concept of guaranteed student loans, came from the efforts of Indiana insurance men, bankers, and attorneys. The early success of USAF was nurtured by financial aid administrators in Indiana institutions, all members of ISFAA. The concept of using private capital to make loans to students rather than encumbering governmental funds for this purpose may not have been legislated except for the efforts of John Burkhart, President of the College Life Insurance Company which was headquartered in Indianapolis, and W. W. Hill, Jr. who was hired by Burkhart from his position as Director of the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce. In 1958 these men began their efforts which resulted in the formal establishment of USAF in 1960.32 The provision of federal insurance or reinsurance, which has become the backbone of the largest of all student aid programs, was at first resisted by USAF; but the original plan of private funds for loans to college students clearly was promulgated by the thinking of these Hoosiers, supported by a favorable climate in the aid administration profession. USAF maintains its corporate headquarters and endorsement center in the Hoosier state at Indianapolis, where over four hundred persons are employed. It recently looked to Indiana for its new President. Roy Nicholson, who was Executive Director of the Indiana Secondary Market for Education Loans, became USAF President in May of 1984.