In response to an overwhelming report of K-State students lacking financial planning knowledge, K-State is working to launch a student financial planning center in fall 2009.
    The idea began as a platform issue used by Matt Wagner and Lydia Peele during the 2007 student body election and is just beginning to take shape.
    The College of Human Ecology, the KSU Foundation and the Student Governing Association will work together to create the center and will start promoting it in the spring.
    "We would like to provide a center for students who want to learn more about credit card debt, loan consolidation and future investments," Student Body President Peele said. "So many people graduate with so much debt. There are a lot of things that students have to deal with and I just think we're missing that piece of educating our students."
    To begin the educational process, a one credit-hour class will be offered next fall by Joyce Cantrell, professor of family studies and human service.
    "We'll talk about goal setting, managing money and keeping spending under control," Cantrell said. "The focus is going to be on credit, debt management and spending. It's going to be very hands-on and students will develop their own financial plans."
    Cantrell said the class targets freshmen and sophomores to better equip them for college expenditures. She said the class is designed to help eliminate the financial problems that students face later in life.
    Though Peele said the center will not be fully launched until next fall, some services will be offered in January to give students an idea of what the center will be like.
    A director for the center should be hired by April 1, and Peele said graduate students might be hired after that.
    "We would like to be able to actually see some product and have students get an idea of what this center might be like," Peele said.
    The Healthy Decisions club also has taken an interest in the financial planning center as they plan to promote the center once it gets started, said Sarah Tedford, K-State's HD Coordinator.
    "Financial aspects and student lives are challenging and it's very important with increasing costs in tuition and gas for students to balance what they're making and create a budget and cover their costs without going into debt, which will cause them problems in the future," Tedford said.
    Peele said Texas Tech University, Ohio State University and the University of Iowa all have similar programs.
    Iowa's program has been operating for 22 years. Peele said she is convinced that modeling K-State's center after these will bring educational rewards.
    Financial planning and fiscal responsibility are two subjects in which K-State students currently remain uneducated. With the development of a financial planning center within the upcoming year, educational opportunities in these subjects should expand.
       "We're really trying to educate students more than anything else and provide a service that we don't think is available anywhere else on campus," Peele said.