The Monthly Memo

Dear Colleagues,

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.

1. 1997-98 notification lists and other associated reports were printed 9/10/97 (mailed 9/11/97) and 9/24/97 (mailed 9/25/97.) The October print dates have been scheduled for 10/7/97 and 10/21/97. Please continue to cross reference your student record data with the notification list information. Due to timing issues, there may be differences between the two records. After examining our system and process, we were not able to identify any concrete evidence that the federal data that we currently draw down was not loading on to our student record system. We did, however, uncover some programming language that was preventing some of the FM changes (that both our staff and the schools were submitting) from updating our student record system. This has been corrected. We are currently loading both FAFSA data and FM data submitted by the schools on to our student record system on a daily basis. This should help reduce discrepancies between our student record data and the school's student records.

2. At this time, if a student is currently ineligible for any of the state programs and their FC changes making them even more ineligible, there is no need to submit the FC change to HEAB.

3. We continue to run the vouchering process on Tuesday and Friday nights. We did run one extra voucher job on the night of September 18th after the programming change that I refer to above was made. Please keep in mind that it takes two to three business days after the vouchering process runs before checks are physically printed. So please plan accordingly. There was one check printing process in September that was delayed two additional days. This is not typical, but it can happen occasionally. Contact me if you have any questions. 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

   Please keep the following in mind:

   1. If a student officially withdrew, state funds must be returned to the Higher Educational Aids Board 30 days from the last date of attendance or the student's notification of their official withdrawal, whichever is later.

   2. State financial aid funds not claimed within 21 days of their receipt by the postsecondary institution shall be promptly returned to the Higher Educational Aids Board, unless there is reason to believe that the funds will be claimed shortly (per Wisconsin Administrative Code, HEA1.07).

4. Lee Hellickson, Lowell Maves, and Barb Moermond are busy putting together their presentation they will give at the fall WASFAA conference. They will be doing an interest session entitled "HEAB - Moving into the Electronic Age." They plan to share with you the various ways to streamline the submission of student record changes, etc. between HEAB and schools.

   To further prepare for this session Lee, our Systems Manager, would like each school to respond to the following questions by OCTOBER 14, 1997:

   1. Are you working on a main frame or pc based system?

   2. What word processing or spread sheet program do you currently use?

   3. Are you using email and if so what system?

   4. Do you have access to a pc with a modem?

   5. What percent of your data is being submitted to us via paper?
      What percent of your data is being submitted to us via email?
      What percent of your data is being submitted to us via FTP?
      What percent of your data is being submitted to us via disk?

   6. Who is the contact person in your office that we can work with on setting up access to our FTP site?

5. Barb has developed a template for file maintenance adds/changes in Microsoft Excel. This can be used instead of the paper file maintenance forms. To use this template you will need an email package which recognizes attachments. Her instructions will detail how to enter the data and how to save the file for HEAB use. The resulting file can either be attached to an email message or put onto a diskette and snail-mailed to us. Please call her at 608.266.3091 if you would like to try using the template. Her email is bmoermon@mail.state.wi.us

6. For the few schools that are still using tapes, again we encourage you to try to convert as soon as possible to FTP, email, or diskette. It is becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate the use of tapes. Please let me know if there is anything that HEAB can do to assist you in converting to another method of communication. Thank you.

7. Just another reminder to the independent schools and the two systems, the deadline to submit the WISSIS Data Form 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.

8. The State Budget process has not come to closure to date. The Senate and Assembly have passed the budget on to the Governor. The Governor has 30 days to veto any part of the budget. The hope at this point in time is that the budget will be finalized by mid October.

9. The Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) met on August 26, 1997, and approved the following changes for the Minnesota-Wisconsin Higher Education Reciprocity Program which will be effective July 1, 1998:

   Reciprocal Fee
   

   Beginning July 1, 1998, the new agreement will allow the reciprocal tuition fee to be set at a rate not to exceed the higher of the Wisconsin or Minnesota resident tuition rates at comparable institutions and that this tuition rate be established in an Annual Administrative Memorandum of Understanding.

   The JFC voted to require the Higher Educational Aids Board (HEAB) to annually submit the proposed memorandum of understanding to the JFC for its approval under a 14-day passive review process. The JFC also specified that the memorandum of understanding would have to include the underlying reciprocity tuition policy, but would not have to indicate the actual tuition rates to be charged to participating students.

   University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Rate Change
   

   The new agreement institutes and the JFC approved a "tuition gap charge" which will be assessed to Wisconsin residents attending the U.M.-Twin Cities campus. The "tuition gap charge" equals 25% of the resident tuition differential between the Twin Cities and Madison campuses. As of July 1, 1998, the reciprocity tuition for Wisconsin residents attending the Twin Cities campus will equal Madison resident tuition plus the "tuition gap charge" The impact of the additional tuition gap charge on U.M.-Twin Cities' enrollment and on the goal of maintaining a financially equitable agreement shall be analyzed in the spring of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 academic years. The conclusion from these analyses will determine whether the "tuition gap charge" will continue and the amount of the charge.

   Other Reciprocity Tuition Changes
   

   The JFC approved the request that the agreement allow the administering agencies flexibility in making tuition changes, so that the specific changes relating to graduate student tuition and credit banding would be made in the Annual Administrative Memorandum of Understanding.

   Beginning in 1998-99, graduate students enrolled under the agreement at institutions in either state would pay the higher of the two states' resident tuition rate.

   Beginning in 1998-99, a Wisconsin resident attending a Minnesota institution would pay the full-time rate if he or she is enrolled for 12 credits or more, rather than 15 credits or more, per term.

   Elimination of the Agreement Expiration Date
   

   The JFC approved the elimination of an expiration date for the Agreement. The Agreement will automatically be renewed each year, unless modified with the consent of both states or terminated. Changes to the agreement will continue to be subject to approval by the JFC.

10. Just as a reminder, the Academic Excellence Scholarships for 1997-98 are:
    • Actual tuition to a maximum of $2,250 for all freshmen (first year students) and sophomores (second year students) at all institutions.

    • $3,240 for juniors and seniors at Independent Colleges and Universities.

    • Actual full-time tuition for juniors and seniors at University of Wisconsin institutions.

    • Actual full-time tuition to a maximum of $3,240 for students attending WI Technical Colleges for more than two years.

11. Please join me in welcoming Lee Hellickson and Sandy Thomas who recently joined the HEAB staff. Lee is our Systems Manager and can be reached at 608.267.2211. Sandy will work with the WHEG, Handicapped Student Grant, and WI Indian Grant Programs. Please feel free to contact her at 608.266.0888.

12. I would like to remind everyone that we have a relatively 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.

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.