Texas Tech gives its students instant access to

financial aid information and assistance

through its KIOSK system.

Building the 21st century

financial aid office
Two universities
share how
technology
has reshaped
N o matter what their age, all students share some similar
college experiences: last minute cramming for exams,
junk food at study breaks, three hours of sleep before
trudging off to class, and of course, waiting in line for financial aid
checks. For more universities however, these long lines are becoming
a thing of the past. Over the last decade, an electronic renaissance
their workplace
has taken place in the financial aid office. Paper applications, award
notifications, even checks themselves are rarer as financial aid
By Matt Smith becomes a completely electronic process.

TG CO N N E C T I O N 13 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1
 e-Awarding and other advances

A ccording to Miguel Wasielewski, assistant

to the director of financial aid at The
University of Texas in Austin (UT), “The
change has been drastic.”

Electronic financial aid award notifications are

one of the latest advances in office practice.
Traditionally during this phase of awarding,
thousands of financial aid notifications are printed.
Multiple copies are mailed to the student; the
financial aid office keeps a copy in the event that a
student needs another one. Students complete
the financial aid document, select a lender, and
return the forms to the financial aid office to be
processed. Usually, the entire process spans
several weeks.

Now, thanks to new technology on the market,

UT’s Miguel Wasielewski, assistant to the director of
financial aid, oversees the innovative solutions available
to students at UT’s Office of Student Financial Services.
many students can receive their financial aid
notifications in just 24 hours. UT’s Office of Student
Financial Services relies on several technologies to
increase the delivery of financial aid information.
According to Wasielewski, the most effective tool
his office uses is a secured Web service called
Check Aid Status Here, or CASH.

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The CASH module forms part of a larger set of

56%
electronic services provided by UT called UT
Direct. “It is particularly useful in that it has
the ability to push information to students
of students e-mail or
depending on their individual circumstances,”
instant message their
professors for help says Wasielewski.

(Source: 2006 Alloy College Explorer Study)

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 With today’s technology, financial aid offices can generate reports
on student traffic that show the number of visits, peak service times,
length of visit, and the type of assistance sought.

If a student has a financial aid notification to complete, Lobby solution: computer KIOSKs
he or she will be prompted to complete this require-
ment on the CASH introduction screen. If there is
nothing for the student to complete, the system will
display the most relevant information according to the
time of year.
T exas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, also
uses technology to simplify their financial aid
processes for students. According to Becky
Wilson, Texas Tech’s director of student financial aid,
“Virtually all of the university’s financial aid processes,
During February, CASH pushes FAFSA completion from application to delivery of funds, have been aided
information, while in August it displays information by the implementation of new technology.”
related to financial aid disbursement.
Computer stations which the university has installed in
“The system is really efficient because it helps students the Student Financial Services (SFS) lobby offer some
by eliminating the need for them to determine their of the most significant changes. The computers, or
navigation path,” says Wasielewski. “It guides the KIOSKs as they are called, enable students to log into
student to the information he or she
needs by
inquiring about logical situations.”

CASH is not the only Web-based tool

that the UT Office of Student Financial
Services uses. They also manage three
other related Web sites which provide
an array of information to students and
graduates seeking specific financial aid
information and job opportunities. In
addition, UT’s financial aid homepage
includes a feature for students called
“Ask Don” that is a searchable database
of financial aid information and
commonly asked questions. If “Ask
Don” cannot sufficiently answer a
student’s question, the question will be The Student Financial Services Office at Texas Tech University in Lubbock,
Texas, uses an automated queuing system to provide more efficient
automatically submitted to a counselor. customer service to students.

TG CO N N E C T I O N 15 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1
 Technological innovation in financial aid office practice
allows financial aid professionals to focus more
on recruitment and retention.
Because UT has automated many financial aid processes,
Wasielewski can focus more on helping students.
the university’s financial aid system to get instant
assistance.
Students log in via a touch screen and then access
personal information with the swipe of their driver’s
license. To give them the specific assistance they need,
the KIOSK asks the student a series of questions.
Texas Tech’s SFS Office also developed an automated
queuing system to provide more efficient customer
service. When a student requires an advisor, they are
placed in the correct line based on the Q&A they
completed at the KIOSK. According to when they
logged in and what type of assistance they need, the
student’s name appears in the “On Deck” queue on a
screen in the lobby. When called, the office name and
TG CO N N E C T I O N
location are displayed to the student via monitors in
the lobby area.
“The idea for the KIOSKs originated when I visited my
orthodontist’s office,” says Wilson. “They had a similar
log-in system. We checked several places, but the only
software available was for the medical industry. After
doing some research, we found a company with
medical software that was willing to adapt it to
education and financial aid.”
The KIOSK system also allows staff to easily produce
reports for administrative purposes. Staff can generate
reports on student traffic that show the number of
students visiting the office for assistance, the peak
service times, length of time spent helping each
student, and the type of assistance or service sought.
“Our new system has definitely improved our
efficiency as an office and added value to the
customer service we provide,” says Wilson. “This past
semester, the SFS office helped more than 1,000
students on the day of cancellation – the day when
payment is due before first class day – and there was
never a long wait time,” she says.
New technology, new goals
O
ther benefits flow from implementing new
technology in the financial aid office.
According to Wasielewski, his office’s
financial aid counselors can shift their focus to more
important tasks.
16 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1
“Reducing the amount of inquiries we get for simple information and the
amount of paperwork we have to deal with has allowed our staff to concen-
trate on more complicated issues, like students with special circumstances
or academic progress concerns,” says Wasielewski.

“In the past, most requests for counselor appointments came from students
Stay
who simply needed answers to basic inquiries, like when they could expect to
have their aid,” he says. “But this is no longer the case, because the majority of
connected.
appointments now require a great deal more counseling.”
Regulatory news,
Furthermore, both Wasielewski and Wilson agree that innovation in the industry trends,
financial aid office allows financial aid professionals to focus more on
tips on professional
recruitment and retention. “In the past, we had four full-time employees on
staff just to file and process documents, but now the computer handles most
development —
of the administrative duties,” says Wasielewski. “Now, we have the same you’ll find them all
amount of staff, but we are able to more effectively use our resources. We can in one e-publication.
be more proactive with outreach efforts and prevent issues with financial aid
so that students won’t even need to contact our office.”

Spotlight on the future

Shoptalk
A s financial aid offices nationwide adopt new technologies to
streamline the financial aid process, there is some concern in the
financial aid community that a certain element of customer
service will be lost.
Online

But Wasielewski does not share the skepticism. “The stigma with technology Subscribe at
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is that it makes everything so impersonal, but in reality it just makes it so we
index.cfm.
don’t have to worry about the stuff that doesn’t need to be worried about,”
he says.

“Ten years ago, I couldn’t conduct outreach nights in other cities and talk to
parents about financial aid – we just simply didn’t have the time for that,”
Wasielewski adds. “Now we can make those commitments and aggressively
market to hundreds of high schools across Texas because we have
technology to make our processes better.”

Wilson echoes this thought. “Just look at how far the financial aid industry
has come in the last several years,” she says. “It’s exciting to imagine what
new innovations are right around the corner.” „

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