Newly Minted is a monthly series on Head Count following John Gudvangen through his first year as a financial-aid director, at Wesleyan University. We’ll check in with Mr. Gudvangen as he learns the ropes of his new position and faces challenges common to his profession, as well as some unique to Wesleyan.
September
Before the school year began, John Gudvangen packed up his things and drove with his parents from their home state of Colorado to Wesleyan University, where they helped him settle in. It’s a pattern followed by new students and their families all over the country. But Mr. Gudvangen is not a college freshman: He’s the university’s new director of financial aid.
Until recently, Mr. Gudvangen was the associate director of financial aid at Colorado College, his alma mater. His extended family lives in Colorado, and his wife is staying there while their younger daughter finishes high school. (Their older daughter attends Colorado College.) So, like a college freshman, Mr. Gudvangen is striking out on his own.
Despite being apart from his family, Mr. Gudvangen is excited to begin his new adventure in Connecticut. “I knew all along that I was taking a leap to leave my very great life and move off to someplace 1,900 miles away,” he says, “but for me and my family, even though we’re apart, it’s a great life event.”
After being on one campus for more than 20 years, Mr. Gudvangen is eager to get to know his new one. “I’m in the business of walking around right now,” he says. “I could certainly sit here in my office and write people emails and call them, or not even do that, but it’s helpful to walk around and say: ‘Hi, I’m John.’”
It’s especially important for him to get to know the admissions staff, he says, because the two offices have to work together to ensure a smooth process for applicants.
Another group Mr. Gudvangen wants to meet are the employers who hire students through programs his office oversees. That way, they’ll know who to refer students to if they have questions.
Mr. Gudvangen was attracted to Wesleyan’s philosophy of admitting students without regard to their need, and then meeting accepted students’ demonstrated need. The big challenge for a place like Wesleyan, Mr. Gudvangen says, is figuring out “How will we continue to assess a family’s ability to pay in a fair manner and be able to meet that need?”
For now, Mr. Gudvangen is getting to know the ins and outs of Wesleyan’s approach to aid–how the university handles appeals, non-custodial parents, and other delicate issues. He expects to learn a lot from his staff, and to change some of his own habits as a result. “I have to remember I can’t hold to all the things I’ve done over the years just because I’ve done them for 15 or 17 years,” he says. “I need to remember that we might have said “yes” to that at Colorado College but we can’t say “yes” to that at Wesleyan or vice versa.”
Wesleyan is not alone in its efforts to allocate aid, Mr. Gudvangen notes. He’ll interact with new sets of colleagues through organizations like the 568 Presidents’ Group, a group of private colleges that have agreed on guidelines for determining student need, and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, a group of highly-selective colleges that share admissions and financial-aid data.
Not only is Mr. Gudvangen learning a new campus, he is also learning new job responsibilities. As the financial-aid director, he expects to be “around the table” when the university sets its budget priorities in a way that wasn’t possible as an associate director. That’s the kind of leadership role Mr. Gudvangen was happy to leave home to find.
