School of Social Work News

Associate Professor Terri Friedline spoke with MarketWatch about the stress many Americans are facing in light of both rising costs and the threat of a predicted recession. “When things are not going well financially, it feels embarrassing and shameful,” she said. “Many, many people have financial difficulties, have struggled to pay their bills, or have over-drafted their accounts.”

Associate Professor Terri Friedline received the 2022 Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award. “I'm humbled to receive this award from doctoral students —an acknowledgement of my contributions,” said Friedline. “It is a tremendous honor to play a small role in supporting the next generations of social work and social sciences scholars.”

Associate Professor Terri Friedline shares her thoughts on President Biden’s student debt relief program in Fast Company.  She says that while the relief package will make a real difference, she is concerned that it ignores the role structural racism and sexism play in educational debt.  "The Biden administration will have to do more if it aims to adequately address these and the many other remaining structural problems with debt and education," she writes. The story originated in the Conversation and has been included in numerous publications including:

• The Conversation
• the Atlantic Journal-Constitution
• HeraldNet

Associate Professor Terri Friedline submitted written comments about the elimination of overdraft fees to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services March 31, 2022 hearing. “If private banks remain unable or unwilling to take the steps necessary for creating equal, dignified access to retail financial services, then they should step aside and enthusiastically support options such as postal banking, public banking, mission-driven Community Development Financial Institutions, and mutual aid or solidarity economy networks, which are dedicated to serving people in need without charging expensive fees and adding to burdensome debt,” she writes.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline’s op-ed in The Emancipator on how reviving post office banking could advance racial equity. “More than 60 million Americans – one-fifth of the population – live in communities without a bank. They’re left either to travel long distances to handle their money or use more expensive nearby options like check-cashing companies, payday lenders and currency exchanges,” writes Friedline. Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe’s Opinion team are collaborating to resurrect and reimagine The Emancipator, the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States, founded more than 200 years ago.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline was invited to share her research on overdraft fees with the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. Friedline is part of a nationwide movement to eliminate overdraft fees which are excessive, predatory, and punish lower-income people for not having enough money in the bank.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline discusses her research in The Conversation on how postal banking could provide a financial lifeline to the millions of Americans without a bank account.

According to data, 24% of U.S. census tracts  have neither a community bank nor a credit union branch, leaving 21 million people "underbanked." The lack of affordable banking creates real hardships that disproportionately hurt low-income Americans and communities of color. Without a bank account, people pay higher fees and interest rates, have a harder time building credit history and are less able to get mortgages and other kinds of loans, writes Friedline.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline and her co-author argue in their commentary “Powerful alternatives to predatory lenders: Postal Service banking and public banks” that the payday and auto title loan industry exists only because there are so many communities in the United States lacking even one traditional bank. The commentary was published in the Chicago Sun Times.