University Business - June 2010 - (Page 26)

FINANCIAL AID What this department is up to, and how more resources can help The Financial Aid Ofﬁce’s Burden By Haley Chitty T HE RECESSION HAS CER tainly forced everyone to do more with less, but ﬁnancial aid administrators are dealing with a new level of this challenge. As with all campus oﬃces, ﬁnancial aid oﬃce resources and funding are being frozen or cut due to tight campus budgets. In addition, ﬁnancial aid ofﬁces are serving more students and families than ever before and administering record amounts of ﬁnancial aid. And at the same time, many ﬁnancial aid oﬃces must transition from the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) to the Direct Loan program by July 1, which can require ﬁnancial aid administrators to learn and implement new systems, policies and procedures. On top of that, these oﬃces must prepare to comply with a host of new, complex regulations, including the new year-round Pell Grant and consumer disclosures for student borrowers. It is exhausting just staying informed about all the recent changes to ﬁnancial aid, let alone implementing them to ensure a campus remains eligible to participate in the federal student aid programs. Doing more with less could also threaten the ﬁnancial aid oﬃce’s ability to eﬀectively serve students. As more time and resources are spent ensuring compliance with complex regulations, aid oﬃces have less time and fewer resources to direct toward counseling students and families. e following reviews all the moving pieces that ﬁnancial aid oﬃces must keep up with and will hopefully convince college oﬃcials to provide additional resources to help aid administrators during these challenging times. Doing more with less could threaten the aid ofﬁce’s ability to effectively serve students. YEAR ROUND PELL GRANTS e elimination of the FFELP on July 1 has received much media attention, but making the switch to Direct Loans should be relatively easy for institutions compared to implementing the new year-round Pell Grant. e idea behind the new regulations is simple. Students who take summer courses to accelerate completing their degree should have access to additional Pell Grant funds to help pay for their courses. However, the regulations are incredibly complex and ﬁnancial aid oﬃces will likely have to use an intensely manual process to disburse the correct amount of additional funding and remain in compliance with regulations. Two factors will make year-round Pell Grants tough to implement. First, aid ofﬁces will need to determine if the student is using the additional funds to accelerate degree completion. To be eligible for the additional Pell Grant funding, students must earn more credits in an academic year than would be required to graduate on time. is can get complicated because some credits count toward students’ accelerating and other credits don’t. is means ﬁnancial aid oﬃces will have to check the amount of credits a student has earned and how they earned those credits to determine if that student is eligible for additional Pell Grant funds. e second factor making year-round Pell Grants tough to implement is when students receive these funds for a “crossover” course—one that begins in one award year and ends in the next. Award years begin on July 1, so any course that begins before July 1 and ends after July 1 is considered a crossover course. Even though the course spans award years, aid oﬃces must assign the Pell Grant award to one of the two award years. e amount a student will receive can vary depending on the award year to which the grant is assigned. e regulations require the ﬁnancial aid oﬃce to compare the varying amounts to determine which is greater, with the larger grant given to the student. is process will be a heavy administrative burden for ﬁnancial aid oﬃces and there are cases where the ﬁnancial aid ofﬁce will have to run the numbers several times as new information or changes to information arise. e regulations make automating Haley Chitty is director of communications at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, www.nasfaa.org. 26 | June 2010 universitybusiness.com http://www.nasfaa.org http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - June 2010

University Business - June 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Financial Aid
Internet Technology
2010 Higher Education Guide to Audio/Visual Services
Green 2010
Viewpoint
The Quest for Internationals
What's New
End Note

University Business - June 2010