Just weeks after Zack Goodwin began his role as Marquette’s assistant vice president of student financial aid, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in late January issued a memorandum to temporarily pause federal financial assistance programs.
The White House rescinded the memo just two days later, but for Goodwin, it was an early test of his leadership and an opportunity to see how his new team worked to respond to a volatile situation.
“It was just a natural way that offices from across campus worked to come together and find a way to address all the moving parts,” Goodwins says. “To do that as a team, it was seamless and collaborative, and we got everything done that needed to get done.”
In this Q&A, Goodwin discusses his 25 years in higher education leadership; his first months at the helm of the offices of Student Financial Aid, Student Employment and Marquette Central; and common misconceptions about student financial aid.
Since stepping into this role at a private, Jesuit university in the Midwest, have you noticed any overlap between your most recent role at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or any of your prior positions?
Certainly, it’s a very different place from UNLV, but it’s not very different from a number of other universities where I worked in the more distant past. UNLV is significantly larger — about three times the size of Marquette. The student body there is very different demographically and culturally. We have much greater socioeconomic diversity here at Marquette, though.
You mentioned similarities at other institutions. How do you draw from those experiences to apply them at Marquette?
I was at Middlebury College in Vermont for a while, then Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In both cases, like Marquette, you’re really attracting a wide variety of students — geographically diverse with people coming from all sorts of socioeconomic backgrounds. As diverse as UNLV is in certain respects, it is a state flagship university and 80% of their students were coming from southern Nevada. Looking at places like Middlebury or Mount Holyoke, I found it especially important to find ways for those students to feel like they belong and to know they fit at that institution. That mentality holds true at Marquette as well.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I’ll call myself a recovering micromanager. So much of my work history is in compliance, which of course requires a ton of attention to detail and needing everything to be a certain way sometimes. But the downside of that — when you’re leading a team or group of people — is that sometimes it ends up being sort of disempowering to them, which is never your intention. Over the years, I have really come more to a place of trying to get a better sense of people’s strengths, skills, knowledge and preferences — where they excel and where they may need to grow — and base how I work with them on that level. To the fullest extent possible, I want to empower them to do their thing.
People may see the term “financial aid” and assume your office’s roles on campus are purely transactional. How do you address that narrative?
Students may never even see our financial aid counselors face to face, but we’ll do anything we can to be sure they know they are welcome and to be sure they know that we are here if they need help.
It’s not just, “We’re paying this charge on your account” or “You’re getting this aid and paying X amount.” Rather, “Where can we educate you better on issues that might improve your day-to-day life?” Or “How can we guide you to other resources that might be of use to you after you graduate?” “What are some skills that might be helpful for you to know more about?” Any of those kinds of opportunities are really enhancing to their whole experience. We want to ensure students know they are part of a broader community and that they know they have a place there.
How do you see the Office of Student Financial Aid’s role within the Division of Enrollment Management (along with the offices of Undergraduate Admissions, International Education and the Registrar) to create a cohesive experience from application to enrollment to graduation?
I think it makes perfect sense that Marquette Central is housed in our area. For better or worse, for students, money is kind of tied to all these other areas — tied to their ability to register and how they’re going to be enrolling. Of course, it’s tied to their bill and how they’re going to be paying. It’s tied to their admissions experience. All these things are inexorably linked. So, we can have an outsized role in helping guide that experience for them, even though we’re not doing all of it for them.
What are misconceptions about financial aid you hear often that you can address?
I’ll offer two common misconceptions. First, a lot of people don’t like to take steps — whether it’s first applying or pursuing anything further than they’ve done — because they don’t think they’re going to receive any type of aid. And that is usually untrue. The truth of the matter is, there could be a day sometime during the year when a student really needs the additional funding, and won’t they be glad if they’ve taken that initial step. Then it’s not going to be hard to take that little bit of loan funding. Plus, there are a number of scholarships at Marquette and elsewhere that require the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to be completed to qualify for those scholarships and grants. So, it’s better just to do it and know that it’s there.
A secondary myth after the national FAFSA issues in 2024 is that the FAFSA is this big, scary thing. But it really does work! And it’s really easy to complete now. Most families are completing it in about 15 minutes. It’s very straightforward and much simpler than it used to be.
And if anyone is having trouble filling out any forms like the FAFSA or otherwise, Marquette Central is there to answer questions, right?
Yes, always. And if it is a more complex kind of problem, of course our counselors are here too. I often joke that people don’t usually want to talk to us, but they sometimes really need to. Life happens and things change or they encounter challenges. And I think it’s important for families to understand that if they do hit roadblocks in their life that impact their family’s financial situation, they should talk to us so we can work through it together. We sometimes get perceived as an office of “no,” but we really are an office of “yes” as much as we possibly can be.
