Kaplan/U of I Discriminating Against Black Applicants?

In a previous class I conducted a study on U of I graduate students' financial literacy. I became interested in the topic after several of my friends found themselves with 0 dollar paychecks after having their wages garnished. The tax code states that up to $5,250 paid through an employer’s educational assistance program per calendar year can be excluded from an employee’s gross income.  Anything beyond that should be treated as a taxable fringe benefit to the employee. Meaning, that tuition and fee waivers can be taxed up 30-35% (25% federal, 5% state, 5% social security). I focused my paper on financial literacy and I discovered finances can play a huge role in students matriculating toward degree completion.  Literature tells us that the leading cause of student’s dropping out of college is due to funding and finances.  Furthermore,  young adults are not financially literate and therefore make bad decisions.  Currently, student loans are at a record high, and so are the default rates.

Here at University of Illinois  this waiver-tax issue disproportionately affects  graduate students of color. Specifically, Graduate Employee Organization reports that 340 out of 9551 or 3.0% of graduate students are Black/ African American.  Out of the 162 employees affected by the GA/PGA taxes 15.4 % are Black/African American which means that the tuition waiver is disproportionately impacting African American students by almost five times the level of their enrollment in the general graduate student population.  Additionally, 65% of the people who are affected by the wage garnishment are women. 

In my paper I argued that to not address this issue would be problematic in several ways. First, it violates the mission of Inclusive Illinois. Second, it could potentially effect the recruitment of graduate students to the University. Third, it could effect alumni investing back into their institution. Finally, it could have lasting effects on students as they graduate and try to cosumer markets (buying a house,car, etc) or jobs. As the article below discusses  employers are now using credit scores to make hiring decisions.
Given these circumstances and possible consequences, does the university have a responsibility to be more intentional with exposing their students to a broad range of financial literacy topics so they are better prepared to meet the financial challenges of living as completely independent adult professionals?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/business/judge-dismisses-suit-against-kaplan-over-hiring-practices.html?ref=education&_r=0