Austin Community College Student Money Management – Implementation Evaluation: Program Description and Timeline

Austin Community College Student Money Management – Implementation Evaluation: Program Description and Timeline
Authors: Cynthia Juniper, Greg Cumpton, and Ashweeta Patnaik
Date: June 2017
Publication Type: Report, 29pp.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded Austin Community College (ACC) $1.7 million to develop programs to help students understand smart money management and college financing.  The grant, “Achieving Student Success through Financial Aid Education and Financial Literacy,” funds initiatives to teach students about money management and to help the ACC community understand the connection between students’ academic and financial goals.  The Student Money Management Office (SMMO) was established to manage services and activities including text message alerts about financial aid requirements and deadlines, enhancements to the web-based Degree Map planning tool, creation of an online presence using various social media platforms, outreach and awareness campaigns for students, and professional development for faculty and staff.

Currently, four staff manage the SMMO project with guidance from an 18 member Advisory Board. The ACC Student Money Management Project Timeline [beginning on the second page of the report] is a brief month by month description of project activities. The information contained in this report was gathered from a number of sources: the ACC and SMMO websites, SMMO Advisory Committee updates, interviews with program director Karen Serna, and various program documents. The remainder of this report presents detailed information regarding each specific initiative, progress made on the implementation of the initiative, followed by recommendations for the next program year.