Governor Names Nies to California Student Aid Commission

UC Merced’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Charles Nies has been appointed to the California Student Aid Commission by Gov. Jerry Brown. The commission is tasked with making education beyond high school financially accessible to all Californians.

“It’s an honor to be appointed to this important commission to further increase and enhance student access to financial support in California,” Nies said. “Financial aid is a critical factor for many students to successfully accomplish their academic, career and personal goals.”

Nies leads the campus’s K-12 outreach programs, enrollment services, student support services, and co-curricular opportunities and student involvement.

While Nies has worked in higher education for more than 25 years, he attributes his deepened commitment to the campus’s equity and access mission and its focus on student success to his own experiences as a first-generation college student.

Nies serves as the chair of the University of California’s Education Financing Model (EFM) committee, which has a similar charge to increase college access for California students.

“I’ve already seen the crossover of work I’m doing on the EFM and the commission,” he said. “We are working together to find ways to share information among different education segments to support students and increase access to financial aid.”