The University Betterment Committee implemented improvements this semester to help reduce financial aid lines.
“The line is not as long as it has been,” Eugene Dial, vice president for student affairs, said. “We still want it to be shorter.”
An improvement that was implemented this semester allowed the online registration module to stay available after the regular registration deadline. “We are finding that a lot of students are using this online to do their registration,” Dial said.
Students were also able to activate their schedule over the phone. Students were able to call in if they had enough financial aid, and someone would activate their schedule for them over the phone, Dial said. The controller’s office reported that 174 students activated their schedules over the phone.
According to Dial one of the main reasons for long lines at financial aid is due to the amount of students picking up loan checks. As of yesterday, the electronic transfer of student loan checks was implemented.
Now students will not have to go sign their checks, the checks will be electronically transferred to the student’s account. This should greatly improve the situation, Dial said.
Another improvement in the works is online fee payment, which will allow students to pay their balance online. “It was not completely ready (for this semester), so we did not want to do something that would cause trouble for some students,” Dial said.
According to Mike Naquin, assistant president for business affairs, students should be able to pay fees online beginning in the summer.
“In the future students will only have to stand in line because they choose too,” Dial said.
Students will be able to pay fees, register and drop and add courses online.
The Betterment Committee was formed during the Fall semester to work on improving troubled areas on campus. These areas include financial aid, fee collection, admissions and records and registration.
The Betterment Committee will meet again during the semester to assess issues that may have come up since the improvements were implemented. They will also discuss issues that students bring to the committee.
Dial said that he has received some positive feedback from students as well as some concern from students who wished more could have been done.
“The key is do not sit back and be happy with just one thing, keep looking for ways to improve something,” Dial said.