Financial Aid Award Letters on the Web

By

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Carrie Lamont

Presentation Goal Discuss Benefits, Setup, and

Customizations of: AES Award Notification Letter Banner Self-Service Award Letter

About IUP 14,000 students; 1,800 employees Largest Member, SSHE 3 campuses; 1 center; 1 academy Doctoral I Clock-hour programs

Banner at IUP Implemented five baseline modules and

three “Web For” products 1998-2000 Banner 5.x (soon to be Banner 6) Oracle 9I OAS (soon to be Oracle 9IAS) Sun Solaris

Post Implementation SSD, FAMIS, Workflow, TouchNet,

Resource25, IDWorks, CSI Web For Admissions and Web For Alumni Quest Central For Oracle Dozens of custom-written programs and

web applications Large data warehousing initiative

New Additions Looming Banner 6 Oracle 9IAS, J-Developer, Forms 9i,

Oracle Portal Pipeline/Luminus XTender Solutions Messaging Integrator

Banner IT Support at IUP Application Development Group

1 Coordinator 1 Senior Systems Analyst/DBA 2 Senior DBAs 7 Developers

Miscellaneous Entities User Services, Tech. Services, Acad. Support

Reps., Power Users

The Challenge Improve the level of service to IUP

students while reducing costs and resources simultaneously

Solution Building Blocks Available Options:

Custom Letters, AES Award Notification

Letters to be supplied: Initial vs. Adjusted

How to handle Freshman: Web generated letter vs. Hard copy letter

Getting the message to students

Past Award Notification Process Popsels, variables, etc created in Banner

by App Dev. Maintained once an aid year by Fin Aid. Letter Generation run once a week. Students stuff and mail letters every week

for hours.

AES Award Notification Process

AES Award Notification Project Accessed via AES Student Portal Customize Setup Maintain Profiles Regularly upload flat files of award data Generate Reports https://hydra.pheaa.org/awards/index.htm

Benefits of AES letters Custom profiles for schools Provides initial and adjusted letters Ability to accept/decline awards Email notification options Report capability

Customized Banner Self-Service Award

Letters

Banner Self-Service Project Created a DB procedure Compiled in the DB Set up in Web Tailor to integrate with

Banner Accessed via Financial Aid Menu in Banner

Self Service

Benefits of Letters via Banner Web

Economic Advantage Maintenance free Dynamic Data Single point of access Easily Accessible

Additional Resources Multiple Award Letters Awards by term AES not available (winter 2003)

Cons of Letter on the Web

Retraining currently enrolled students Parents feel isolated Keeping up with accuracy of URLs

Banner Self Service Customizations

Aid Year Packaging Dates Aid Period Award Type

Financial Aid is able to control access to data on many levels:

Display Multiple Aid Years

Financial Aid can display multiple award letters for their students based on Aid

Year.

Display Multiple Aid Years Access to information is controlled by Information Access

Indicators.

Display Multiple Aid Years If ROBINST_INFO_ACCESS_IND = 'Y' and

ROBINST_AIDY_START_DATE <= ‘SYSDATE’: Display Aid Year

Control by Packaging Date

If Packaging has not been run yet for the aid year in question, then award letters

should not be displayed!

Control by Packaging Date cont

A user-defined field was set up on RTVUSER to store a generic packaging date

Control by Packaging Date cont

If Current Date < RTVUSER_DESC_10 date:

'PACKAGING HAS NOT BEEN PERFORMED YET FOR THIS AID YEAR’

Packaging Date Restrictions cont

Not all students get packaged at the same time.

If the students packaging complete date is not populated, then award letters should

not be displayed!

Packaging Date Restrictions cont

If RORSTAT_PCKG_COMP_DATE is null:'NO PACKAGING DATE FOR STUDENT'

Aid Period Considerations

A student’s aid period code determines what terms are displayed on the award

letter.

Aid Period Considerations cont

If RORSTAT_APRD_CODE = ‘FA/SPR’: Fall and Spring aid is displayed. If RORSTAT_APRD_CODE = ‘SP/S/F’: Spring, Summer, and Fall aid is

displayed.

Fund Codes displayed on Letter

Financial Aid can control what Fund Codes are displayed on the Award Letter.

Fund Codes displayed on Letter cont

If RFRBASE_VR_MSG_NO is null:

Fund Code will not display on the award letter.

Delivering Financial Aid is Information and Customer Communications Intensive

Integrate Award Letter and Resources!!

Integrate Award Letter and Resources Provide:

explanations of useful information downloadable forms active financial aid messages outstanding requirements

Increase service level for students Reduce number of student calls/inquiries Less demand for Financial Aid counselors

on the counter

Integrate Award Letter and Resources

Additional Links on Award Letter Download scholarship form Review explanation of aid programs Review explanation of IUP charges

Additional Buttons View Active Messages on ROAMESG

If ‘SYSDATE’ < RORMESG_EXPIRATION_DATE: Display Message

Additional Buttons cont

View Outstanding Requirements on RRAAREQ If RRRAREQ_TRST_CODE = ‘E’ or ‘I’: Display Requirement Click hyperlinked requirements to download necessary forms

Demonstration

https://wwwdev.banner.iup.edu/

Visible Improvements Pre-Banner: ~75,000 letters/yr

Initial and Adjusted for all students Banner Let Gen: ~9,500/yr

Initial and Adjusted for all students Now: ~4,500 letters/yr

Initial for Freshman Only

Conclusion Current award letters are available via

Banner Self-Service for all students Initial/Current award letters will be

available via AES for all students Freshman will receive a hard-copy letter,

as well.

Questions

Carrie Lamont

clamont@iup.edu