financial aid award letters on the web by indiana university of pennsylvania carrie lamont
TRANSCRIPT
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.
