Financial Aid Services
To support students in achieving their educational goals by assisting them in obtaining
financial assistance through federal, state, institutional and private grant, scholarship, loan,
employment and payment plan programs.
To support the institution by maintaining compliance with all federal and state regulatory
policies and procedures governing the student financial aid programs.
Core Activities and Performance
Core Activity
Key PI
Indicators
Communication
- Inform students about the various forms of financial assistance
available, via the college web site, e-mails, letters, postcards,
posters, electronic message baords and workshops. - Maintain
application filing deadline dates to promote students to complete
their financial aid applications early, for both new and continuing
students.
Compare the
number of
FAFSA filers
from year to
year.
Processing
- Improve turnaround time on processing of FAFSA's that are
"selected for verification". - Continue to hire "seasonal staff" to
assist with the back-office processing during peak processing
periods.
Monitor the
length of
time it takes
for an
average file
to be
completed
during peak
processing
periods.
Compliance
- Continue to review financial aid applicants who are "selected for
verification" by the US Department of Education, obtain required
supporting documentation and resolve discrepancies. - Continue
to insure that all Office of Financial Services staff members attend
annual regulatory workshops.
- Annual A133 audit
performs a
random
sampling of
prior year aid
recipients to
review
compliance
accuracy. Annual
training
activities are
planned and
attended by
staff
members.
Customer Service
- The office continues to provide customer service to a high
number of student inquiries via in-person, telephone and e-mail. Additional training has been provided to cal center staff and front
desk staff, along with cross-training between financial services
and bursar.
Reduce the
lines and
wait time in
the customer
service area.
Technology
- With the launch of CUNYfirst, the office directed students to use
the initial on-line services offered through CUNYfirst to view their
financial aid awards rather than calling and/or coming to the
office. - Continue to point students to the web to answer most
frequently asked questions and services.
Measure the
number of
hits to
CUNYfirst
"self-service"
and the
departmetal
web pages.
Department-Sponsored Staff Development Activities
Activity Type
Topic
Date
Total
CUNY Financial Aid Conference
6/4/2010
15
National Associate of Financial Aid Administrators Conference
7/12/2010
1
USA Funds Federal Training - Fall
10/13/2010
9
US Department of Education Conference
11/30/2010
1
New York State Higher Education Administrators Workshop
12/15/2010
4
USA Funds Workshop - Spring
5/18/2011
9
organized
Professional Achievements and Activities of Individual Staff
Achievement Type
Other
First Name
Last Name
Achievement
Semester
Changes in Department within Last Year
Change Type
Change
Reason
Semester
New Filing Cabinets
Need for additional storage units due to Fall 2010
the increased volume of files processed
by the office.
Equipment
Personnel
Cindy Wang - hired as new Assistant to HEO. Additional positions approved by CUNY Fall 2010
Central.
Jeremy Manishor - hired as new Asssitant to
HEO
Additional positions approved by CUNY Fall 2010
Central.
Karen O' Sullivan - hired as new HEO
Assistant.
Additional positions approved by CUNY Fall 2010
Central.
Joseph Grisafi - hired a Part-time
Non-Teaching Adjunct
Position had been vacant.
Diana Pham - hired as a new Assistant to
HEO.
Additional positions approved by CUNY Fall 2010
Central.
Catherine Brandt - hired as a new College
Assistant in the Call Center.
Hourly funds available to increase
personnel in Call Center to improve
telephone customer service.
Fall 2010
John D'Amico - hired as a new College
Assistant to support back-office processing.
Hourly funds available to increase
back-office processing staff
Fall 2010
College 101 - Financial Aid staff members
began attending "College 101" sessions
offered by New Student Enrollment.
To increase service to new incoming
students.
Spring 2011
Fall 2010
Services
Changes in Department within Last Year
Change Type
Change
Reason
Semester
New Student Advisement in SUL - a financial To increase financial aid services to
aid staff member attended each new student new students
advisement sessions held in the SUL.
Spring 2011
Assessment and Evaluation
KPI
Target Outcome
Actual Outcome
Action Plan
Status
Communication
Establish application
deadline dates to promote
students to complete their
financil aid applications
early, for both new and
continuing students.
Effectively increased the number Plan effective, will
Completed
of students in both populations
continue again next year.
completing their FAFSA's early.
Processing
- Improve turnaround time
on processing of FAFSA's
that are "selected for
verification". - Continue to
hire "seasonal staff" to
assist with the back-office
processing during peak
processing periods.
Processing has become more
effective by utilizing the
additional staff and adhering to
the "first-in, first-out" method.
This allowed staff to spend less
time seeing walk-in students and
more time processing.
This practice had a
significant positive
impact on the workflow
in the office. We will
continue this next year.
Compliance
- Continue to review
financial aid applicants who
are "selected for
verification" by the US
Department of Education,
obtain required supporting
documentation and resolve
discrepancies. - Continue
to insure that all Office of
Financial Services staff
members attend annual
regulatory workshops.
- Staff members attended annual
regulatory conferences and
workshops.
- Annual A-133 audit did not
have any findings for the college.
The expected outcome
Completed
was achieved. We will
continue the same action
plan.
Customer Service
- The office continues to
provide customer service to
a high number of student
inquiries via in-person,
telephone and e-mail. Additional training has
been provided to call
center staff and front desk
staff, along with
cross-training between
financial services and
bursar.
Customer service suffered this
year due to the implementation
of CUNYfirst. The system was
very hard to understand for both
staff and students. While the
college tried to offer training
there were too many things
wrong in the new system to
compensate for.
Continue to have more
Continuing
training sessions for the
staff regarding CUNYfirst.
However, until the
system is stabilized it will
be very hard to improve
customer service.
5/15/09 - 5831; 5/14/10 - 8382;
5/13/11 - 8883
Completed
Assessment Plan
Core Activity
KPI
Target Outcome
Communication
Continue to promote the
Continue to increase the number of
importance of completing the students applying early.
FAFSA by the established
deadlines.
Plan
Continue outreach plan
already established.
Assessment Plan
Core Activity
KPI
Target Outcome
Plan
Processing
Continue to improve the
turnaround time for
processing "back-office"
operations.
Monitor the length of time it takes for
an average file to be processed
during peak periods and insure that
all student who apply by the
deadlines are processed in a timely
manner.
Continue to hire "seasonal
staff" to handle the volume
of peak period processing
needed to be done prior to
payment due dates.
Customer Service
Improve customer service
While improvements were made by
experience via front desk and adding staff, and offering staff
telephone
training and development, the
customer service experiences was not
improved due to the implementation
of CUNYfirst. Customer service
suffered as a direct result.
Add more training sessions
for the staff to better
understand the new system.
However, until the system
becomes more stable and
known problems are fixed,
customer service will
continue to be a problem.