The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that it would allocate $50 million to make up for the failure to launch the long-delayed FAFSA. Universities are now thinking about how they can get that support.
The department and its nonprofit partners will recruit and deploy financial aid specialists and advisors to what they call “severely under-resourced campuses,” with a particular focus on minority-serving institutions. is. These colleges are more severely affected by FAFSA delays than colleges with fewer Pell-eligible students or large financial aid offices with strong technical resources.
However, there is little clarity about how universities qualify for additional support, or what “under-resourced” means in this context.
The department only announced last Monday that all historically Black and tribal colleges and universities are eligible to receive direct aid from the agency. A ministry spokesperson declined to answer further questions about the aid plan, instead referring to last Monday's press release.
Such opacity threatens to add to the frustration of institutions already struggling with the FAFSA rollout, which has been plagued by delays, errors and technical issues. And the department's attempts to save face could become a complex process with new challenges that could make many universities worse, not better.
Meanwhile, institutions are scrambling to adjust admissions schedules to give students and rushed financial aid staff more flexibility. On Wednesday, both the University of California and California State University systems extended their May 1 decision deadlines by two weeks. Other universities, including Oregon State University, have extended their deadlines to June 1.
Battle for position
Department officials said they would focus on supporting financial aid institutions, especially those serving minorities, which have large populations of low-income people and are overtaxed. But Andrés Castro-Samayoa, an assistant professor of education at Boston University and a researcher at MSI, said the “vague” definition of an under-resourced university is a poor choice for institutions that need federal aid, especially MSI. He said it could cause controversy.
“On the one hand, I'm happy that MSI is being chosen in this area. It's important to recognize HBCUs and TCUs,” he said. “But what's on my mind is other types of MSIs that have been historically ignored in terms of funding, such as majority black colleges and universities, where the black population is a majority, but HBCUs. A university without a historical mission, and a Hispanic-serving institution.”
Trinity Washington University, a women's college in Washington, D.C., appears to be exactly the kind of university the department hopes to support. The majority-Hispanic, majority-black institution has 65 percent of its students who are African American, 30 percent who are Latino or Hispanic, and more than 70 percent who are Pell-eligible, according to the most recent institutional data. have. Additionally, the undergraduate financial aid office is fairly small, with several full-time employees sharing aid-packing duties with other office staff.
But the university's president, Pat McGuire, said he has “no idea” whether Trinity Washington will receive a piece of the Education Department's $50 million pie.
“I think we might be considered, but I really don’t know what their definition of ‘under-resourced university’ is,” she says. “Is Trinity under-resourced? Surely. But that could mean millions.”
Leaders at other universities share the same sentiment. When the department released its college aid plan last week, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities was wrapping up its annual conference in Washington, D.C., and as with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona surprised It appeared in Conference later that day. Both participants said that although the atmosphere had subsided, they left feeling more confused than relieved.
Anne McElhaney Johnson, president of Mount Saint Mary's University of Los Angeles, attended the NAICU meeting. She said Hispanic-serving institutions could really take advantage of this funding and additional staffing. Mount St. Mary's has just six financial aid staff members this year compiling offers for about 3,800 applicants. But she doesn't even know if her college can qualify.
“It's not clear at this point where that aid is going to go. There are a lot of Hispanic-serving institutions. We're not a monolith,” she said, adding that some of the largest and most well-resourced institutions in the country, such as the University of Texas at Austin, He pointed out that some of the universities are technically HSIs. “And $50 million is a good start, but when you spread it out to all the universities that need it, it can get stretched pretty thin.”
Justin Monk, director of student and institutional aid policy at NAICU, said he understands university leaders' concerns about being left behind, but is optimistic the department will find a way to provide broader support. He said he was watching.
“We don't know how the ministry defines under-resourced universities, but we hope it will be broadly defined because all universities want to take advantage of these resources,” he said. Stated. “How controversial this will be will depend on how narrowly the department defines what types of universities qualify. We hope to have clarity on that next week.”
The stakes are higher for smaller colleges that rely on tuition, like Mount St. Mary's University of LA and Trinity Washington University. McGuire is concerned that the “disastrous” development of the FAFSA could lead to staff collapse and, in turn, disruption of student aid provision. She says if the student herself feels that level of uncertainty, it can turn her off before she even receives her package.
“When ISIR happened, [Institutional Student Information Records] When it finally comes, it's going to be like a tsunami hitting a pier,'' McGuire said. “If even 100 of our students' grades were off, it could be financially devastating.”
“Don’t add to the confusion.”
Some concrete progress has been made on how to mobilize the advisory group. NASFAA, ED's first nonprofit partner in this venture, said Thursday that it is using its existing consulting service, Blue Icon Advisors, to recruit “members of the financial aid community who can assist with financial aid management systems and processing” on campus. announced that they would be rewarded. Visits and remote consultations are also possible.
Mr McGuire said parts of the aid plan were “a lot of people scratching their heads”.
“Our staff is stressed enough without having to think about strangers coming in here and telling them what to do,” she said. “It seems to me that we have found a solution by looking for a problem. Why enrich a bunch of consultants when we can directly provide material support to educational institutions?”
In an interview with Inside higher education, university presidents and financial aid professionals repeatedly offered several suggestions for support that would make a difference. In addition to delivering ISIRs to universities sooner than March, they proposed waiving income verification requirements and addressing outstanding technical issues, such as a glitch that prevented undocumented parents from filling out forms.
McClain-Johnson said she doesn't blame the department for the failed rollout. She believes Congress's mandate to overhaul the FAFSA is a prohibitively expensive mandate issued without sufficient funding. But she hopes department officials will listen when university leaders say what is needed now.
“We are so grateful for these first steps,” she said. “I just hope there will be more.”
Because of errors and delays in the FAFSA rollout over the past six months, McGuire isn't as confident as he once was.
“There's a lot of irony right now,” she says. “This whole process is where the word 'snafu' comes from.”
