COMMITTEE: Student Scholarships, Fellowships, and
Financial Aid Committee
MEETING DATE: Tuesday January 29th, 2008
11:00am
PERSON PRESIDING: Ken MacLeod
REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Yong Wang; Hanna
Jubran; Pramathanath Sastry; Jill Matarelli Carlson; Kindal Shores;
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Dr. Judi Bailey; Shelly Myers,
Susie Harris
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Dr. Michael Bassman
ACTIONS OF MEETING
Agenda Item: Approval of September 24th,
2007 Minutes
Discussion: Everyone agreed that the
Minutes were in order.
Action Taken:
The Minutes were
approved.
Assigned
additional duties to:
N/A
Agenda Item: Financial Aid Update
Discussion: Dr. Judi Bailey brought the
committee up to date on the Financial Aid Office. She reported that they had a much better
opening this spring than in the previous fall.
Also, that the Interim Director, Sheryl Spivey, has great experience and
is helping to re-train all of the current staff in Banner. In addition, by early February, there will be
several new changes to the website. Dr.
Bailey informed the committee that students needed to have their Financial Aid
applications in by Feb. 14th, 2008 to be sure that there is adequate
time if they are selected for the verification process, run by the Federal
Government. This process can take
anywhere from 48 hours to indefinitely longer period of time. ECU FA does not select those to be verified
but does assist in processing the documents required. Another problem can occur
when students assume that because they have applied for Financial Aid that they
do not have to pay for their classes.
Many students’ schedules get dropped because they have not paid their
bills.
Dr. Bailey also
informed the committee about the recent tragic death of a member of the Student
Financial Services staff and commended the faculty on their understanding and
help during the transition they were going through.
The Financial Aid
office is also working to bring ECU’s Satisfactory Academic Progress in line with
the Federal Government’s requirements for Financial Aid. For example, the Federal Government does not
recognize our ‘Grade Replace’ policy.
So, Financial Aid is updating their policy so that they are more
cohesive to the policies of the Federal Government.
Action Taken:
This update
fulfills the committee charge to periodically review the overall operation of
the Student Aid Office.
Assigned
additional duties to:
N/A
Agenda Item: Scholarship Weekend Update
Discussion: Dr. Michael Bassman and Dr. Judi
Bailey gave us and update on the changes that have been made to Scholarship
Weekend to increase it’s competitiveness with other programs. It has been moved to February 15th
and 16th and instead of scholarships ranging in size from $2,500 to
$10,000 being awarded to many students, this year 18 scholars will be selected
and given $10,000 each for four years, as well as, $5,000 to study abroad. This
should up the status of the scholarships and keep ECU from being a “fall-back”
choice. There will also be smaller
groups of judges this year (no more than 6 per group) to make it less
intimidating for the candidates.
Students will no longer be able to be both a Teaching Fellow and an EC
Scholar due to conflicts in their obligations.
Action Taken:
Though the judges
have already been selected for this year, members of the committee were invited
to attend the Friday night meet and greet with the candidates and will be
available to fill in if any of the current judges are unable to attend.
Assigned additional
duties to:
N/A
Agenda Item: University Undergraduate
Catalogue Review
Discussion: Judi Bailey informed us that
Linner Griffen would be the person to contact to see if updates would be
productive at this time.
Action Taken:
Ken MacLeod will
contact Linner Griffen and address this issue.
Assigned
additional duties to:
Ken MacLeod
Agenda Item: Selection of Scholarships
Discussion: Judi Bailey informed us that the
information for scholarship selection would be available toward the end of
March, so the committee agreed to set up the next meeting in late March at a
time when everyone was available.
Action Taken:
Ken MacLeod will
contact the committee by e-mail for available times and with the final meeting
time.
Assigned
additional duties to:
Ken MacLeod
NEXT MEETING: Late March, 2008
TBA
ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED: The SSC
Committee’s Scholarship selection.