Financial literacy class to possibly be offered as a general education course
Utah State University Student Association Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Senator Cameron Pitt and Associate Professor Ryan Whitby are campaigning to make a financial literacy course an optional breadth social sciences general education class. A resolution garnering support from the USUSA academic senate has passed in academic senate and executive council.
The course will be offering students information about budgeting, borrowing, investments, returns, the time value of money, human capital, behavioral issues, historical perspectives and trends, and the financial system.
“I think the biggest thing a student from USU could come away from this [financial literacy course] would be confidence,” said Senator Pitt when asked what USU students will get out of this course. “Confidence in the fact that they know what they’re getting into when they’re buying their first credit card loan, when they’re taking out student debt, when they’re getting ready to buy a home.”
There is currently more than $1.1 trillion of Federal student debt in the United States. A survey from the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy reported that “54% of college student respondents had overdrawn their bank account and 81% underestimated the amount of time it would take to pay off a credit card balance by a large margin.”
“There are a lot of issues in terms of people saving for their financial futures,” Whitby said. “So for example, 84% of workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement and 34% have no savings at all. The sooner we can get to people as their making those [financial] decisions, the better they understand the material and it would be more helpful.”
Whitby first taught the course this semester and said he didn’t expect so many students to be interested in the course.
“I think we had 35 or 40 students take it and that’s without it counting for any degree,” Whitby said. “We didn’t advertise it, so we were kind of surprised that we had that many students.”
USU students took this course without it counting towards their specific major requirements. Whitby has been pushing for this course since 2016.
“I think it could benefit everybody, but specifically a lot of students at USU are facing these [financial] choices on a daily basis,” he said. “Having some knowledge, having some preparation, is just going to help.”
This course is not yet a general education class but the Academic Senate and Executive’s support for the class could change that.