By Abi Smith
Our student body is too diverse for perfection and will never be treated like kings and queens. But, with regard to one new university policy, we deserve a little common sense and some degree of timeliness as well.
As most know, U of L has altered its method of disbursing financial aid owed to students. More specifically, it “has contracted with HigherOne, an outside company that specializes in student refund payment services.”
Once the university releases the funds, the money can be deposited directly into to a HigherOne bank account (Easy Refund); money becomes automatically available for use via a pre-issued UofL OneCard. Funds can also be transferred to students’ private bank accounts (ACH Transfer), or mailed to them as a paper check.
Of course, having access to every penny of your aid at one time materializes best via the transfer or the paper check. The debit card has per diem withdrawal limits of $500 for ATMs and $2,500 for point-of-sale transactions. And making a series of inconvenient daily trips to cash machines isn’t usually one’s idea of a good time.
But, while transfers and paper checks are approved options, current actions on the parts of the Bursar’s Office and HigherOne only delay each process. The outcome could be a penniless start to a student’s school year.
HigherOne’s processing schedule for bank transfers is 2-3 business days; for a paper check, that schedule is bloated to 5-7 days. However, the Bursar’s Office must first communicate with HigherOne before any such processing can take place.
Last week, the Financial Aid Office reported that it had “made the first disbursement of financial aid funds to the Bursar’s Office on Friday, August 11, [and that] subsequent financial aid disbursements [would] be made everyday through August 25, 2006.” The Bursar’s Office would then “[attempt] to send the first electronic file of student residuals to HigherOne on Monday, August 14, 2006,” with the plan being “to send subsequent electronic residual files to HigherOne twice a week.”
According to information obtained from a call to the Bursar’s Office, this subsequent “batch” of electronic files was just being sent to HigherOne on Thursday, August 17th. Since the Bursar’s second electronic communication with HigherOne came so late in the week, anyone choosing the transfer or the paper check – who also happened to be in the second batch of electronic files – started school yesterday (August 21) with no refund money in hand.
This shouldn’t be.
Minor delays and imperfections are to be expected, but more than a few of these can equate to horrifying financial experiences for aid recipients. A student at another HigherOne affiliate – Southern Oregon University – said it best. Quoted by his campus newspaper in early 2005, he noted, “I know people who still haven’t gotten their financial aid checks who…[asked] for a paper check.” “And now,” he continued, “their rent is late.”
The Bursar’s Office has to make haste in light of the university’s decision to outsource refund activities to HigherOne. If aid is going to be disbursed every day prior to the start of a school year, then batches of students’ electronic files must be sent to HigherOne every day as well. And if there’s nothing in place for such an action to occur, then the university should devise a way to make it happen.
As a business, HigherOne will do whatever is most expedient for them. But obtaining books, food, or rent monies are absolute musts for students on a budget. It is U of L’s responsibility to expedite all aid deliveries so that the process does not jeopardize financial situations any further.
