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Much has been written about the challenges colleges and universities face in this trying economic climate. One set of issues that has not been sufficiently addressed, however, is how to communicate more effectively about money (or, more realistically, the lack thereof) to faculty and staff. Skillful communication can not only calm troubled waters—it can also prevent avoidable missteps that make matters worse than they already are.
Both Adrian Furnham in The Psychology of Money and David Krueger in The Secret Language of Money observe that understanding money is about vastly more than dollars and cents. The key to such understanding is to recognize money's deep symbolic power. A previous life as law professor specializing in consumer finance and indebtedness gave me an appreciation for how and when to use language to increase a sense of financial empowerment.
Karen Gross is president of Southern Vermont College and is a distinguished visiting professor of law at New York Law School, where she has taught since 1984.
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