This issue seeks to provide researchers with the tools they need to make sense of the complex interplay of politics, students, and institutions that constitutes our current system of student aid. The ultimate goal is to provide institutional researchers with a research agenda for student aid that can be integrated within their work. In each chapter, the authors suggest a research agenda, which flows from their presentations. Reports of three empirical studies within this issue provide concrete examples of the types of research institutional researchers can execute on behalf of their campuses.

This is the 95th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Institutional Research.