Student Money Management at UT Tyler

    Money Management. This is not a foreign subject for any college student. In fact, most college students cringe when you mention this topic for the simple reason that most of us are perpetually broke and really do not wish to be reminded of that fact. If they do not have questions about it now, many students will unfortunately face this harsh truth when they graduate because according to forbes.com “The average American is $ 4,000.00 in debt!” I know I have hit on this     topic before in my Breaking the College Poverty Cycle blog, but I have recently found new resources and I must share them with the world.

        Student Money Management, this is a new organization on campus which aims to equip The University of Texas at Tyler students with the knowledge to control their money instead of letting their money control them. The graduate Assistant in Student Affairs, Christina Gibson, has been participating in the implementation of the program by researching other schools money management programs, finding educational resources, and creating the Student Money Management website. She will be conducting the outreach and facilitating programs to engage students in discussion about good money management.  Basically, she is the brains behind this organization! So I decided to get the answers directly from the source and ask her a few more questions about the organization!

ME: What is the goal of this organization?

Christina Gibson (CG): The Student Money Management (SMM) Program’s main goal is to educate students on how to become financially independent and graduate college with a sense of how to manage their money. We currently offer student's a money management education through presentations and workshops, online resources on our website, and eventually like to offer personal consultations with a financial advisor. We want to give students the opportunity to:

-          Learn how to create a personal budget

-          Make a plan to repay student loans and personal debts after graduation

-          Learn ways to protect their identity

-          Learn how to track and manage expenses during and after college

-          Understand and build strong personal credit

-          Find educational resources that offer advice, tips, and tools to better their financial situation

ME: Who can benefit from this program?

CG: All students! We want all of our students to make good financial decisions. College students are in dire need of financial guidance. Out of a recent survey of more than 1,000 colleges, 98 colleges said their 2010 graduating class owed an average of more than $35,000, and 73 colleges reported that more than 90% of students graduated with some amount of debt. Average student loan debt tops $25,000.

With college students consuming this amount of debt, and spending such vast amounts of money during their college experience, students can benefit from financial advice being provided for them from their universities.

ME:  How do students get involved?

CG: Students are welcome to check out our website. There are many resources, tools, informative articles, and beneficial items to get them started on their money management journey. It is separated by different categories, depending on what type of information they are looking for. We will update it periodically with new resources, along with adding videos and pictures from the different events we have! On our website, there is also a link to our UT Tyler CashCourse. This is a program the University has invested in for our students to use in the Student Money Management program. 

So, as you can see, this organization is a great hands-on organization tailored directly for the students of UT Tyler. For more resources follow Student Money Management on Twitter where they repost TONS of helpful articles from places like USA Today Money, Dave Ramsey, and our own UT Tyler Departments. Be on the lookout for events in the fall. Trust me you DO NOT want to miss out on this!