Financial Aid at Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK) is implementing changes that will affect students in the coming semesters.
On August 14 and 15, 2018 Maureen Croft Ph. D, vice president of enrollment management at TAMUK, sent a mass email to TAMUK students, faculty and staff regarding the progress of the disbursement of financial aid.
Students were concerned with late fees being assigned to their university accounts and flooded the Javelina Student Enrollment Center (JSEC) with phone calls to ensure they were not going to be charged.
Croft further explained the process of dispersing financial aid.
“The issue is, especially with the summer [semester] in regards to financial aid in the fall, is that you have to end the semester, get the grades in, that has to go to the registrar, the registrar has to certify those grades, then we have to run a computer process called SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) and running that process takes time,” Croft said. “We can only disburse the funds in the 10 days prior to class, so it’s a very tight timeline.”
Interim Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Adriana Garza-Flores praised the improved communication between students and administration.
“That’s really the first time I can remember being here in eight years and seeing that type of message go campus-wide about a financial aid update, and that’s because we understand students have concerns and frustrations,” Garza-Flores said. “We want to be sure to communicate and be transparent about what’s going on and keep everybody in the loop. I see that as something that will probably continue.”
Improved communication is not the only change coming to financial aid.
Croft is looking to move students’ bill due date closer to the first day of school.
“What we are trying do this next year is to get [disbursement] as close as we can to SAP, but we feel like we can move our bill due date a little bit later so that maybe we can have a couple of days in-between there so that students aren’t as worried about late fees.”
A big change facing students is the potential change in drop date that financial aid is considering.
“The reason we are going to be dropping students earlier next semester is because it gives them more time to recover. Our drops right now are on the fifth class day. That gives students a very short window before the state cut-off on the twelfth class day,” Croft said. “If, let’s say, we move our drop date to the first class day then students will have more time to get back into classes. It’ll be an easier process and they’ll have more time.”
Garza-Flores looked to alleviate students concerned about being dropped earlier because of non-payment.
“At first we understand that students might panic if they get dropped earlier,” Garza said. “This means that now they have 12 days to get back into classes.”