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Letters to the Editor:
A note to our financial aid applicants
By financial aid staff
The Financial
Aid Office would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the many
students who suffered unreasonably long delays in obtaining their
funding this semester. We make every attempt with the limited resources
at our disposal to process and deliver aid in as efficient and timely
a manner as possible. This year, however, a number of programmatic
changes led to unforeseen delays.
For example, many students accustomed to borrowing Alaska
Student Loans in the past were unaware that the Alaska Commission
on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) had replaced that loan program
with the AlaskAdvantage Federal Stafford loan and the Alaska Supplemental
Education Loan. ACPE had made expansive efforts to notify the public
of the change via press releases, web site notices, and by sending
brochures and fliers to financial aid offices and past borrowers.
Regrettably, these notices escaped the attention of many students
who were out of state during the summer.
The new loan programs have some important changes. Statewide,
the University of Alaska system adopted the policy that students
would be required to first apply for federal funds, using the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid, before they could borrow from
the supplemental loan program. The reasoning behind this policy
was to assure that students had access to a possible Federal Pell
Grant (funds which do not have to be repaid), as well as lower cost
loans (in terms of lower interest rates, and the possibility of
government subsidy of interest accrued while in school).
An important (and confusing) change was ACPE’s
new participation in the federal Stafford loan program. For the
first time, you could choose the State to be your lender for federal
and well as alternative loans. The expanded option has some very
attractive advantages: lower interest rates and lower origination
fees than some of our other lenders. However, these large-scale
changes made at the same time in the same agency wreaked havoc:
it wasn’t always clear which loan you were meant to apply for;
you received conflicting information from UAS and ACPE about the
status of your application; sometimes information regarding your
loan was sent to the wrong school; even when the money arrived,
you were told you’d have to wait for a refund; you were faced
with the terrifying prospect of figuring out how you were going
to pay your rent on time.
We know there’s a lot of red financial aid tape
facing students. We see our job as helping you to cut through it.
Believe me, we don’t do this job because we enjoy telling you
we need your parents’ tax returns and a signature on a mountain
of paperwork. We don’t do it for the glory. We certainly don’t
do it for the money. We do it because we passionately believe in
education, and we believe that every dedicated student should have
access to it.
That being said, let us add this: we promise to do our best to prevent
the sort of delays and frustrations you suffered this semester from
happening again. We have isolated a number of software glitches.
We have recognized patterns of miscommunication between department
offices, between the financial aid office and funding agencies,
and between these various offices and our students. We have consulted
with other university offices, and we are streamlining our processes.
So are the funding agencies. We welcome your constructive feedback
to help make the entire financial aid process easier, faster, more
convenient, more understandable. Tell us what’s on your mind.
Email us at finaid@uas.alaska.edu,
or call us at 465-6255, or just drop by 205 Novatney.
Thanks,
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