April 2025 Assessment Spotlight Interview
Elizabeth Riquez and John DelValle
The Financial Aid Services Office
Q: Briefly describe your department and its programs.
A: Financial Aid Services is responsible for the processing of all Federal Student Aid, including all Title IV aid (Federal Direct Loans, Grants, and Federal Work Study) and Scholarships.
Q. Please explain your roles within Financial Aid Services?
A: Riquez: My name is Elizabeth (Betty) Riquez and I am the Director of Financial Aid Services. As Director I am responsible for all aspects of Federal Student Aid at Baruch. I have a truly talented and dedicated staff. We are a small office whose passion for our students knows no bounds. We understand that Financial Aid is a driver for social mobility, of which Baruch ranks #2 in the Northeast according to U.S. News.
DelValle: My name is John DelValle and I am Associate Director of Financial Aid Services. In my role I oversee the Scholarship program, Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), and all marketing and communications for our operation.
Q: The Financial Aid Services Office has been engaged in several exciting programs and assessment efforts! Can you describe one or more of them?
A: DelValle: The effort that I am most excited/proud of is our extensive FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) campaign. Every year, the FAFSA is the gateway to financial aid. Every year, billions of dollars in potential aid are lost due to students not completing the FAFSA. One study estimated that over $4 billion in Federal Pell Grant money, which does not need to be repaid, was “left on the table” because of students not completing the FAFSA. Our assessment initiative evaluated our FAFSA outreach efforts, including e-mails, text messages, and even postcards. Our assessment demonstrated that for the 2023-2024 academic year, our efforts contributed to over 80% of eligible undergraduate students completed the FAFSA, which is a truly remarkable achievement for our students.
Q: How will this assessment(s) prove beneficial to the students and the program? What aspects of this assessment were new? Successful? Challenging?
A: The assessment will be incredibly beneficial to our students as it highlights not just who we are and what we do, but also what challenges we are still facing. While we are incredibly proud of our 80% Undergraduate FAFSA completion rate, we still look for ways to connect with the 20% of non-filers. Why aren’t these students filing? How many of these students are eligible to file? For example, undocumented and international students are not eligible for Federal Student Aid and cannot file a FAFSA. Of the 20% of non-filers, we don’t know how many are undocumented as this information is protected and we do not have access to it. We would love to let our undocumented population know that they can still qualify for the NYS Peralta Dream Act Scholarship, but unfortunately, we do not know who they are.
Q: What have you learned during the assessment process thus far? What might you do differently in the future?
A: One thing that we have learned through the assessment process is the impact of our campaign and the power of creating a positive culture around completing FASFA. For example, 75% of Undergraduate students who received one or more of our FAFSA messages viewed the communication. More importantly, over 80% of all eligible Undergraduate students completed the FAFSA, far surpassing the 75% view rate. This is a testament to our students and the initiative they take to complete the FAFSA every year.
The Futures Act and FAFSA Simplification necessitates change in how we assess things like FAFSA completion. Last July, the Department of Education released data showing that New York State’s 2024-2025 FAFSA completion rate for high school seniors was 12% lower than the 2023-2024 completion rate. This drop will affect our goals and assessment and will most likely lead to a change in the outcomes that we expect.
Q: What would you recommend to staff who want to engage in meaningful assessment? How can we better inform staff of its value and impact on student success?
A: We would recommend that staff be as open and honest as possible when it pertains to assessment and focus more on programmatic growth than on “meeting your goals”. The true purpose of assessment is to better understand our impact on student success. If you focus on student impact and not on hitting your goals, then no goal is a failure. Always remember that success is often built on the foundation of failure.
Interviewed by Melissa Sultana, Office of Assessment
April 2025