Funding for financial literacy courses approved by ASG

Students might soon learn how to balance their budgets and their checkbooks, thanks to financial literacy classes funded by the UNC-system Association of Student Governments.

The classes, proposed at the ASG meeting last weekend, will be paid for by the association’s discretionary money. The association is funded by an annual $1 student fee.

Each UNC-system school will receive $1,000, said Rusty Mau, an N.C. State University delegate and the resolution’s author.

“I think a big problem we see in the world itself is that people have not been taught some important basic financial literacy problems,” he said.

Delegates at ASG voted unanimously to pass the resolution. Typically, resolutions require three readings but the association suspended the rules for this bill so that it would go into effect immediately.

Mau said he hopes NCSU will offer the classes as early as March.

UNC-CH student government leaders have not yet decided on how to use the money.

It will most likely be used to host a series of lectures or walk-in events to teach students how to become financially aware, said Shelby Hudspeth, director of state and external affairs in UNC-CH’s Executive Branch.

“I think it is really important for UNC students,” she said. “I think it is important for everyone our age to understand how to keep their money, especially in the economy we have.”

Leigh Whittaker, student body president of UNC-Asheville, said the lectures would be important to students across the UNC system because she thinks most students are part of a generation less prepared to be financially independent than their parents’ generation.

“I think it’s a really good idea for our generation,” she said. “I can definitely tell a generational difference in financial literacy when comparing my generation to my dad’s generation. It is obvious that my dad’s generation had more of that hunger for understanding and having financial stability, and it’s not really implemented in our public K-12 programs.”

Hudspeth said she hoped the lectures would make students more confident in handling their own finances, adding that her dad helps her with her taxes.

Crystal Bayne, student body president of UNC-Greensboro, said she was glad to see ASG taking this unprecedented step to help students gain financial information and experience.

“I think ASG has never really tried to accomplish something like this before,” she said. “Upon graduation, many people would be surprised at how many college students across the state lack the financial literacy necessary for effective financial management and planning.”

Bayne said she hoped the lectures would cover topics such as 401(k) plans, fixed- versus floating-rate mortgages and investing time value of money.

“If you have a more educated society, you have a better society as a whole,” she said.

“Whether we want to believe it or not, the people who are sitting next to us in class are going to be running the country one day.”

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