As financial aid offices at Utah colleges and universities struggle to overcome delays in federal financial aid award notifications, the Utah Board of Higher Education has approved a policy aimed at providing funding for certain state aid initiatives student.
The funding will come from proceeds from the $300 million Higher Education Student Success Fund created in 2022 under SB172 after Utah exited the student loan processing business and higher education officials approved the sale of Utah’s loan portfolio. $1.2 billion that had been administered by the Utah Higher Education Fund. Assistance Authority.
Earlier this week, the Utah Board of Higher Education approved a policy authorizing spending a portion of the endowment proceeds for board initiatives and appropriations to degree-granting colleges and universities, as well as technical schools to supplement four state aid programs linked to financial aid. workforce development and “high-impact service.”
Weber State University President Brad Mortensen said state aid is especially important to support qualified students affected by delays and issues stemming from the national rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid form.
“Given the impact of the delays in implementing the new FAFSA form, the board’s action to immediately provide additional funding will significantly benefit students who need it now,” Mortensen said in a statement.
“At Weber State University, these funds have the potential to benefit thousands of our students who struggle to pay for college and reap the benefits of a college education,” he said.
Javier Chávez Jr., a member of the Board of Higher Education, described the FAFSA delays as “a national emergency, creating barriers for Utah’s neediest students. … We took immediate steps to break down those barriers and support our students.”
For the next academic year, the vast majority of annual endowment disbursements will supplement the following programs:
- Utah Promise Grant, which expands access to all Utahns by providing financial assistance to those who demonstrate financial need.
- The Talent Development Scholarship, awarded by degree-granting institutions, was intended to recruit and train individuals to work in designated jobs that are in high demand for new employees and offer high salaries in Utah.
- Technical Education Scholarship (institutions with technical education programs), which provides financial assistance to students pursuing technical education in designated high-demand industries.
- A Utah Service Grant, the first of its kind in the country to combine state and federal funds in one AmeriCorps program. The mission of the program is to provide accessible opportunities for young adults to participate in high-impact services to address state needs and priorities.
Mortensen said Weber State University had recently received information from the U.S. Department of Education that it needed to gather financial aid offers for prospective students.
“Normally, we would begin processing FAFSAs for the following academic year in November. This year we started a couple of weeks ago. “We’ve been able to catch up and have processed about 78% of what we normally would, but there are thousands of students who haven’t even completed the FAFSA because of all of this,” he said.
Streamlining the FAFSA process will benefit students and institutions in the future, but until that happens there is “even more need for programs like this through the endowment fund and other ways we can help students,” Mortensen said. .
“This year is a big challenge,” he said.
The delays are related to the Department of Education’s updating of the FAFSA. The Department of Education worked to expedite applications, but the launch, scheduled for October 2023, did not occur until December. Once the forms were posted online, there were complications that resulted in the forms being deleted multiple times, delaying families’ access to the online forms and posing challenges for families who were unable to correct errors in the forms. forms they had sent.
Utah State University President Betsy Cantwell said the delays have had significant impacts for students from “difficult economic backgrounds and for our first generation” of college students.
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