The Monthly Memo

Dear Colleagues,

Again, I encourage the submission of names of other staff members within your department or school who would like to be included on the mailing list for this monthly memo.

1. We are still in the process of updating our school contact list. Please provide the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the individual/s who handle the day to day processing of the various state programs in the Office of Student Financial Aid and in the Office of the Bursar or Business Office. Please also indicate the responsibilities that person has related to the state programs e.g. "processes refunds." I thank those of you who have already responded to this request.

2. As of 2/17/98 the following has been spent for WHEG and WTG:

   UW WHEG:	94.1%	(last year 97.3% was spent)
   WTC WHEG:	93.16%	(last year 77.2% was spent)
   WTG:	95.5%	(last year 91.5% was spent)

   To assist in determining how close spending will be to the 1997-98 appropriation, I ask that each school provide to me by March 9, 1998, an estimate of what remains to be vouchered and remains to be refunded for the WHEG and WTG programs.

3. 1997-98 notification lists and other associated reports were printed 2/4/98 (mailed 2/4/98) and 2/17/98 (mailed 2/18/98.) March print dates have been scheduled for 3/3/98, 3/17/98 and 3/31/98. Please continue to cross reference your student record data with the notification list information.

4. March's vouchering jobs, with a few exceptions, have been scheduled for Tuesday and Friday nights. Since the state system is scheduled to be down this week, we will not be able to voucher March 6th. I have also been informed that the checks our March 3rd voucher run will produce will not be printed until the second week of March. Since Mary Lou and Sandy will be attending the WASFAA Support Staff Workshop March 9th and 10th, we will run our voucher job March 11th rather than on the 10th. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee that your request can be loaded on the same day it has been received if the information arrives after 3PM. Keep in mind that it takes two to three business days after the vouchering process runs before checks are physically printed. Contact me if you have any questions. It is very important that you request funds for students who are registered or who you know will indeed be attending your school. This will assist in reducing the number of refunds that are processed. Please refer to your October Monthly Memo, under point three, which references what must be included when submitting refunds to HEAB and the timeframe in which funds must be returned. PLEASE RETURN REFUNDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY FOR SOME OF THE SMALLER PROGRAMS IN WHICH REFUNDS APPEAR TO BE DOWN. This will ensure that available funds are spent.

5. When sending refunds to HEAB please include the following:
   • School Code
   • Student's Name
   • Student's Social Security Number
   • Amount of money that is being returned for the individual student
   • Type of program the funds have been disbursed from and the Disbursement Code
   • What semester or term the funds were originally disbursed for
   • Voucher Number

   HEAB staff has been spending an increasing amount of time trying to determine some of the details mentioned above which is causing a delay in processing. Thank you in advance for providing this level of information.

6. For those interested, we have put together a template to be used for the return of refunds. Please let me know if you are interested in using this process. I plan to contact a few schools who return a substantial amount of refunds asking that you begin using this format.

7. There are 10 schools who have not spent any of the 1997-98 TIP funds available for first time recipients enrolled at their school. There are 16 schools who have more than $2,500 of their TIP allocation remaining to be vouchered. If we do not hear from these schools by March 13, 1998, indicating that these funds will be vouchered for 1997-98, the funds will be reallocated to another school. If your school has potential recipients and would like more funds allocated for these students, please contact Sherrie Nelson by March 13, 1998.

8. Periodically we are asked by Financial Aid Administrators to indicate what a student must provide to prove he or she has a "satisfactory child support payment status." It is our understanding based on statutes and based on conversations with staff members from the agency that monitors child support delinquency statuses that the individual must provide a statement from the Clerk of Courts which shows the person's name, social security number and indicates that he or she is not delinquent in any court ordered payments for child support or maintenance and does not owe past support, medical expenses or birth expenses. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

9. It still appears that we are not receiving all of the records that are being processed by the federal processor. We continue to investigate this issue.

10. There also appears to be some isolated cases where FM updates made are not reaching our student records. We are still looking at some internal programming that may be related to this issue.

11. Please DO NOT send any changes for 1998-99 academic year yet. We have had a few callers asking if we are processing 1998-99 at this time. We are not. You will be notified when we are ready to begin the new year.

12. The newly appointed Higher Educational Aids Board (formerly Council) met February 27, 1998. Formulas for 1998-99 were discussed and approved. I will send a separate memo to each sector outlining the 1998-99 formulas for WHEG and WTG along with a timeline for 1998-99.

13. Mary Lou and Sandy are looking forward to attending WASFAA's Support Staff Workshop. They will have a lap top along with FM and Voucher templates if anyone attending the workshop would like a very informal demonstration on how to use the templates. Please let one of them know that you are interested and they can set up a time with you to get together.

14. Just a reminder that our general HEAB email address that all file maintenance changes, adds, and voucher requests should be sent to is:
    HEAB@mail.state.wi.us

I thank you once again for your feedback! I appreciate your thoughts! My phone number is 608.264.6181, FAX: 608.267.2808, EMAIL: hojanj@mail.state.wi.us and snailmail: HEAB, P.O. Box 7885, Madison,WI 53707-7885.