Message From The President
Our nation’s economic success rests with the ability of its citizens to understand personal finance and economics and to put that understanding into practice. Economic education helps students learn to make decisions about their personal and shared resources, their role in the economy, and the need for analytical thinking. In short, informed students will become informed citizens, workers, voters and taxpayers. Where better to emphasize economic education than at college.
Consistent with its mission to prepare Western students for lifelong learning and leadership in work and society, the university has developed a blueprint for comprehensive education of students in the fundamentals of financial literacy. This program builds on solid foundations for success, including a personal finance course offered by the Ancell School of Business and effective workshops on credit card use and abuse presented during freshman orientation.
The financial literacy program’s vision is to coordinate and implement a wide-ranging effort designed to increase Western students’ general knowledge and practical experience in the effective management of personal finances by providing skills needed to cope with the financial challenges of today’s rapidly changing world.
We are well positioned to mobilize an interdisciplinary campaign to offer a sustained and cohesive program to bridge the financial literacy gap during students’ college years.
James W. Schmotter
President, Western Connecticut State University
