UWSP Financial Aid
http://www.uwsp.edu/finance/
Assessment Review Completed:
April 16, 2009
April 16, 2009 assessment review/presentation consisted of the following:
Financial Aid Assessment Presentation;
Department Overview
Contents
Vision
“Making it happen!†This is a loaded phrase to us, but it is
more memorable for its brevity. To us it is a focal point from
which a lot of what we do emanates. Students choose higher
education, prepare for it, the dream of success, then worry can
it really be done? We have to take their circumstance as we find
it, hitch on to their dream, and “make it happen.â€
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Mission
The overall goal is to provide financial assistance for those
students who need it without overburdening individuals with
excessive indebtedness. We want to do this in a timely and
accountable fashion.
This mission gives direction to all our initiatives and
energy to our purpose. It puts us in a striving mode and reminds
us of our servant role. It is a mission that can not ever be
entirely carried out, because the aid is never enough to our
liking and the debt is always more than we would want it to be.
But our task is to always keep the mission in sight and let it
fuel our yearning to find the best possible solutions for all
the conditions that come our way.
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Values
- Education as a primary means of achieving a better life
- The dreams of each individual we encounter
- Extra effort for the most difficult cases
- Fairness to all we serve
- Honesty and integrity in all our actions
- Making the aid application process as simple as possible
for our applicants
- Fast and accountable service to ease applicant anxiety
- Respect for each individual, regardless of background or
condition
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Goals
Each year the Financial Aid Office identifies goals and
objectives to accomplish in an effort to assess or improve the
various services provided by the office. The goals and
objectives for the coming year include:
- Goal 1: Award existing financial aid
resources in a consistent, fair, and equitable fashion
compliant with current federal and state regulations.
- Objective 1: Set award policy, parameters,
and practices that will meet or exceed existing state
and federal regulations.
- Objective 2: Develop fund-awarding controls
that sustain awarding of insufficient resources in a
consistent, fair, and equitable fashion, beyond the rush
of early applicants, at least through June 15, and
ideally well into September.
- Goal 2: Implement two new federal grant
programs and one new federal loan program.
- Goal 3: Hire one university associate
and one assistant director to fill anticipated vacant staff
positions.
- Goal 4: Install and attain fluency in
the SCT Banner 7.X upgrade, which will be a major change in
the administrative data management software system utilized
by the Financial Aid Office. This system controls the way
the Financial Aid Office looks, feels, functions, and
communicates between work stations, servers, and remote site
servers.
- Objective 1: Staff will need to be prepared
and available during a “cutover†period which will occur
from Banner version 6.X.
- Objective 2: Because there are new
functionalities in the upgrade, the staff will need to
be involved in testing to ensure that the new software
version operates in the same manner as prior releases
and that any new procedures needed to take advantage of
the new functionalities are designed and implemented in
an efficient and effective manner.
- Goal 5: Review the existing Financial
Aid Policy and Procedures Manual for accuracy and
completeness.
- Objective 1: Garner staff input to provide
for a thorough update of the existing Policy and
Procedures Manual.
- Objective 2: Develop a process for
monitoring and updating the Policy and Procedures Manual
in the future.
- Goal 6: Develop documentation from the
Financial Aid Office for the next North Central
Accreditation visitation.
- Objective 1: Review Council for the
Advancement of Standards in Higher Education benchmarks
for the Financial Aid Office. Develop narrative
responses addressing all related areas of interest.
- Objective 2: Complete relevant assessments
and generate appropriate future objectives accordingly.
- Goal 7: Administer a simple client
satisfaction survey. Review results to ascertain if there
are new service enhancements that are needed and warranted.
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Intended Outcomes
- Mail incoming freshmen awards prior to any other
University of Wisconsin school.
- Award existing financial aid resources in a consistent,
fair, and equitable (vertical) fashion compliant with
existing federal and state regulations.
- Develop fund awarding parameters that sustain awarding
of insufficient resources in a consistent, fair, and
equitable (vertical) fashion, beyond the initial rush of
early applicants, ideally well into September, but at least
through June 15.
- Compile and submit compliant data to satisfy the NCAA
Division III financial aid reporting requirements.
- Review the existing Financial Aid Policy and Procedure
Manual for accuracy and completeness.
- Generate documentation from the Financial Aid Office for
the future North Central Accreditation report and on-site
evaluation.
- Administer the existing client satisfaction survey to
develop a longitudinal benchmark.
- Communicate with students, parents, community, and other
staff members a positive, caring image of the Financial Aid
Office personnel through our interactions.
- Document the quantity of email correspondence for each
of our staff members.
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