The Monthly Memo

Dear Colleagues,

I thank those of you who responded to the July monthly memo. Your input is very valuable. I appreciate your taking time out of your very busy day! Again, I would like to invite 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.

Responses to the July Memo:

Question #1. Per the request of the majority who responded, we will send out the notification lists every two weeks. In terms of enhancements, we will work on:
1. including some kind of code that indicates "new to the list" names,
2. providing the list via FTP, email, or diskette,
3. developing a secure on-line look-up database of all students on the web.

Question #4. Thank you to those who have volunteered to be a test site for submitting refund related data via FTP, email, or diskette. We will be in touch with you in mid to late September to begin exploring this process.

Question #5. We will continue to draw down all changes to student records throughout the year per the request of those who responded. There was one school that asked that we attempt to draw down electronic changes made only by the school, therefore not accepting any changes the student has made. What are thoughts on this concept?

Question #6. We will continue to provide the look up charts for both WHEG and WTG. Apparently there are schools (in all sectors) that have found these to be useful.

Question #7. There was some feedback from some of you about the confirmation of enrollment in October. Some of you had concerns about knowing for certain whether a student would be attending or not at that time of the academic year. Would you feel confident in reporting those who have "canceled" through your admissions office as students who would not be enrolled?

New Issues:

1. A new 1997-98 notification list and other associated reports dated 7/22/97 were mailed 7/23/97. This list included the information that was provided by Health and Family Services. This list also incorporated the changes discussed in the July Monthly Memo. The next 1997-98 notification list is scheduled to run 8/5/97.

2. Academic Excellence Scholarship (AES) 1997-98 recipient lists were printed 7/24/97 and sent out 7/28/97.

3. A final 1996-97 notification list and other associated reports were run 7/31/97. You should have these in your hands soon.

4. I did meet with Health and Family Services about receiving data on a more regular basis. They agreed to investigate the possibility of transmitting data to us on an every other week basis. I will make you aware of developments as they occur.

5. Our first voucher will be 8/5/97. We will continue to run vouchers on Tuesday and Friday nights thereafter, as has been past practice. Please 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 process refunds as soon as possible. The following is information schools must include when submitting refunds to HEAB:
   • Student Name (first and last)
   • Student Social Security Number
   • Disbursement Type (e.g. WHEG, TIP, etc.)
   • Academic Year and Semester
   • HEAB Voucher Number
   • Refund Amount
   • Date and Number of Check being refunded
   • HEAB School Code

6. I have sent out the request for Wisconsin Student Support Information System (WISSIS) data to individual independent schools, the University of Wisconsin System, and the Wisconsin Technical College System. Just a reminder to the independent schools and the two systems, the deadline to submit the data is 10/15/97. UW and WTC schools data is submitted by their System Administration. Therefore, the individual UW and WTC schools do not need to complete this form.

7. The State Budget process has not come to closure to date. There is hope that legislators will come to some agreement by next week. In the meantime, the UW System Administration has announced a 7.9% tuition increase for 1997-98.

8. Independent schools should already have received a tentative allocation list for the Minority Retention Grant Program. Once the budget is settled I will send out a final list.

9. I would like to remind everyone that we have a new general HEAB email address that all file maintenance changes, adds, and voucher requests should be sent to. The address is:
   HEAB@MAIL.STATE.WI.US

   This was effective as of July 7, 1997. Please continue to put your school code and the file type (add, change, or voucher request) on all related correspondence to us. It would be much appreciated! We have recently developed a tracking system that records all of the file maintenance and voucher request transmissions sent to us. We will next implement a "confirmation of transmission received" process that will let schools know when a record has been received, along with the number of records, and the type of records.

Please email the responses to the questions above by September 15, 1997.

Again, I thank you in advance for your thoughts!!! Your input is very important!!!! 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.