Written By: Mayah Cantave

Financial aid complications for the Fall 2014 semester are causing trouble for VSU students and employees alike.

 

It’s been almost four weeks since classes started and students are still having financial aid difficulties. Some recent problems include the inability to pay for fall tuition and the inability to buy books.

 

The financial aid office was backed up because of the volume of students and the extra federal documents needed to award the disbursement of loans and scholarships, according to Doug Tanner, director of financial aid at VSU.

Standard processing time for student federal documents is between seven to 10 days. Since there was heavy backlog, the processing time was much longer this semester.

 

The backlog has negatively affected some students. Some students who did not receive their award did not have funds to buy books. Other students even had their classes canceled and had to re-register.

 

Many students are frustrated with the financial aid office.

 

“Employees were rude; they didn’t want to help anyone,” Khiry Clements, senior journalism major, said.

 

The backlog has affected not only students, but VSU employees as well.

 

There is little to be done about resolving financial aid issues.

 

“Because most of the factors which caused these delays were due to federal requirements, there were limitations on what we could do to resolve them,” Tanner said. 

 

Many VSU employees are working overtime and even weekends to help with the backlog. The financial aid staff ensured that students waiting for their award would not have their classes canceled because of the heavy backlog.

 

“Everything we do is subject to review by (several) groups, so we have to be absolutely sure that we have everything in order before we make an award, even if it causes delays and inconvenience for students,” Tanner said.

 

“I wish there was an easier process that would help both the students and VSU employees,” Eboni Skerrit, senior biology major, said.

 

According to Tanner about 80 percent of students, both graduate and undergraduate, are in need of some kind of financial aid this fall, including HOPE, Pell grants and additional loans. More than 85 percent of undergraduate students are looking to receive financial aid.

 

In addition, loans are the most used form of financial aid. VSU has distributed or plans to distribute about $38 million in loans for the fall semester. Grants and scholarships that distributed this semester total to about $17 million.

 

Only about 10 to 20 percent of students pay partially out-of-pocket for tuition. Although some students pay out-of-pocket, most are awarded at least partial loans, grants or scholarship awards.