To prepare students for the implications of the new law governing credit cards that takes effect today, Psychology Professor Harold Takooshian presented a public forum on the law’s provisions on Wednesday, Feb. 17.
The forum, “The U.S. CARD Act: Coping with students’ financial $tress,” was months in the making. It was prompted by statistics showing that half of all college students report financial stress. What is worse, seven percent of college students drop out as a result of this stress.
Seven experts, representing private industry, nonprofits and academia, each briefly described different facets of the problem. Among the presenters was Amanda Vardi (FCLC ‘10), who developed a one-hour workshop in “healthy financial habits for students” in September 2009 in collaboration with Takooshian and Economics Professor Michael Buckley. Based on the workshop, Psi Chi, the international honor society in psychology, awarded Vardi a grant to design a model workshop to circulate to honors students at the Society’s 1,100 U.S. campuses. The workshop includes a 25-minute DVD that includes information on aspects of credit and financial literacy for students.
“Our Fordham research finds too many U.S. students suffer alone with the problem of debt while trying to succeed in school,” said Takooshian. “There is now help available to our students in the CARD Act, our free Fordham DVD and workshop, and other new resources.”
Additional public workshops on these issues will be conducted by Carol O’Rourke at Fordham School of Law’s Center for Debtor Education.
