The Associated Students of Madison Academic Affairs Committee began to prepare for their upcoming FAFSA Week, while also moving forward with the initiative to create a new Shared Governance committee dedicated to maintaining the affordability of textbooks for students during today’s committee meeting.
“FAFSA Week” is an event that will be hosted in April to help any students interested in getting help filling out their FAFSA forms to receive federal financial aid for the upcoming semester.
“Federal funds for students are very limited and can run out soon,” Academic Affairs intern Zach Ivins said.
He added it is helpful for students to fill out the forms earlier, in order to guarantee they receive all of the federal funding for the college education they deserve.
Ivins said “FAFSA Week” is to begin April 19, with a session held in the Ogg Hall computer lab to help any interested students fill out their entire FAFSA from start to finish.
Ivins said the event would be staffed by employees from the Financial Aid Office, to give students the most insightful and detailed instructions to properly fill out the forms.
Walk-in sessions will be held the rest of the week on the fourth floor of the Student Activity Center on East Campus Mall for students to ask questions about any problems they may run into while filling out the financial aid forms.
Academic Affairs is also interested in institutionalizing the weeklong event, so students can enjoy it every year.
Committee members also focused on their proposed Shared Governance committee which will come to a vote before the Student Council at today’s meeting.
Jonah Zinn, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, said the new Textbook Affordability Committee would be important in generating new ideas on how to lower costs of textbooks for many students, such as having departments begin using electronic textbooks or setting up rental and library reserve programs.
“We would also set it up so [the committee] could work with other groups on campus to lower costs,” Zinn said.
The committee recognizes the need to generate a widespread and diverse base of faculty support for the installment of the committee. They plan to keep pushing members of the faculty to show their support.
After one session of petitioning multiple professors for their signatures on a proposition to support the implementation of the Textbook Affordability Committee, the committee has obtained signatures of ten professors on campus that support the founding of the committee, many of whom said they would continue to support the committee and it’s mission in the future.
The current amount of signatures falls sharply below the committee’s goal of 100.
The committee hopes to get professors on board with the Affordable Textbook Campaign by mid-April, with a diverse range of signatures from faculty members, particularly in the economics, chemistry, political science, psychology and math departments.
Zinn said he hopes the proposal could get on an agenda for a meeting of the University Faculty Senate soon so they can vote on it.
Zinn added he does not foresee any problems on the proposal for the new committee passing through ASM later today.
