Students, parents, and college officials from across the state discussed the matter with McCaskill through a teleconference video feed.  College officials from MU, Stephens College, Williams Woods University, and Lincoln University also attended.

At the conference, some people described their frustration with FAFSA requirements as well as their inability to receive aid. 

McCaskill said the unemployment rate influences families problems with financial aid.  She said Missouri students experience many of the same financial aid problems that their peers in the country do.   

We're not the worst state in the country, but we are a long way from the best state in the country when it comes to the unemployment rate, McCaskill said. So I'm sure the same thing is true with the students who are struggling to get and keep financial aid but are having difficulties. 

MU Student Financial Aid Director Jim Brooks said his office receives a lot of complaints about the federal requirements needed to get aid.  

Because we administer federal programs, we're subject to the federal rules that go along with those programs, Brooks said. [With] many of the programs that have come out of Washington the last two or three years, there have been so many rules tied to them, so many stipulations that we spend a lot of time just administering the programs. 

Missouri Student Association Speaker Amanda Shelton expressed some of her problems with financial aid during the conference.  She said financial aid requirements, among other things, affect MU students trying to receive financial aid. 

In the scholarship process, I heard so many people say that they would have more time to focus on their studies if someone gave them the chance and gave them a bit more financial aid, Shelton said. 
 
McCaskill said financial aid requirements have to be changed in order to fit many families' financial realities.  However she said it would take some time before congress begins to talk about financial aid reform. 

We're doing healthcare reform now, so we won't get to it on the floor until after we finish healthcare and I don't think we will finish healthcare much before Christmas.