Message from the President

Respect.  It is a basic right that all people deserve to have; something that everyone should show to others.  Yet recent tragic events have painfully demonstrated that for some tolerance and mutual respect are too often lacking in our culture.  The desire to push an agenda with a complete disregard for other points of view is a negative approach that can foster animosity.  Such does not bring about positive change.  There are always better ways to express oneself if the goal is to sway thoughts in a new direction.  Seeking out those better options is to be encouraged and supported.

I’ve enjoyed contributing as a part of our Financial Aid professional community for 29 years partly due to the consistently referenced desire for encouraging inclusion and diversity in our daily work.  Generally Financial Aid administrators want to help others.  We strive to help student’s dreams come true.  We support each other so we can all wade through the steady stream of changing rules and regulations successfully.  We try to uphold the honor and dignity of those we serve.  It is our character to do so. 

Support for respecting diversity is a staple with our professional associations.  I’ve seen this consistently during my years while serving in SASFAA, SWASFAA and now MASFAA.  At state, regional and our national levels the desire to be inclusive is a norm that is highly sought.  I have always appreciated this.  Today I encourage each of us to demonstrate this drive even more in all we do.  Let us turn the pain and shock of recent divisive events into a resolution that we will honor other opinions, we will encourage discussion and respectable debate as pathways to understanding, and that we will seek to build bridges when gaps seem to keep people apart.  Let’s keep our professional traditions of respect for others and in honoring diversity high in our minds and active in our hearts.  Let’s be examples of a better way in all aspects of our lives so that we can continue to help others in multiple meaningful ways.

Thomas Ratliff, MASFAA President