Private Sector Forum

[Mark Moore]

Hello Private Sector School Co-conspirators;
With HEERF II funds here and HEERF 3 coming in the future,
I was wondering how some of you are splitting things up and what “MATH” are you using to determine need ?
For HEERF II; We (Duq) are looking at taking: C.O.A. minus Gift aid = Need > 10,000; they’re eligible.

Just curious how others are administrating it and if whom have already distributed their HEERFII Funds ?

Thank you,
Mark

[Gwynedd Mercy University]

Hey Mark;

I hope all is well. Rosemont received a small amount of funds in round 2. We offered it to our Pell recipients and gave them a percentage based on the amount of Pell funds they received. With this new round, we will need to see the amount and figure out to expand our pool. I hope this helps.

Joe

[Point Park University]

Hi Mark,

We awarded Round I to our entire eligible population. We haven’t awarded Round II yet. We should have a decision in the next few weeks. I will post something as soon as we make our decision. I am pushing for awarding our entire eligible population again.

George

[Greg Gearhart]

Mark,

Your math is similar to ours for HEERF II, most of which we have distributed at this point. We went with all aid in our unmet need calc (not just gift aid) and factored out large PLUS or private loans.

For HEERF III, my thought is that it makes little sense to send another large batch of money to a population that we just did that for, while paying less attention to people who have need but aren’t Pell recipients or didn’t meet our exceptional need definition. Some of those folks contacted us after our HEERF II email wondering why they didn’t get any. So, our preliminary plan is to lower the bar on that exceptional need definition quite a bit, but we’re still running data to determine how much that will be.

Greg Gearhart
Director of Financial Aid
Messiah University
gearhart@messiah.edu

[William Burke]

Mark, while retired, I am not yet dead, so I have been trying to keep track of HEERF funding. When I was director at Scranton, we used HEERF I funding trying to adhere to the spirit of the law and altering guidance provided by ED. We used an online application asking all eligible students, both UG and on campus Grad students, to identify additional expenses caused by the disruption of on campus learning. We honored all requests, with limitations set for each category of expenses: transportation, technology, books and supplies, etc…. without regard to demonstrated financial need. HEERF II and I suppose III appear to allow much more flexibility. Prior to my retirement, I did provide the administration some suggestions on how to award the II funds that had been legislated using a tiered need approach like what you are considering and reserving a smaller pool to address any specific needs that may be identified through an application— technology needs, additional costs that may occur due to COVID 19 restrictions, etc… I’m unsure when III funds need to be spent and share Greg’s concern on how much layering of funds to the same populations should be done.

[Mark Moore]

Thank you for your input.

[Mark Moore]

Still some days left :
AICUP’s Annual Campus Leaders Forum
This year’s Forum will be offered virtually throughout several days in June. June 14th, 16th, 22nd, & 24th The cost for AICUP-member schools is $100. This provides access to any institutional attendee to the program. That means, if someone in IT is attending and signed up the institution, any other campus employee can attend using that code at no additional cost.
The agenda includes topics such as campus policing, cyber security, higher education trends, academic development, COVID learnings and testing, campus planning…and more. And this year, more than in prior years, there are a few topics related to financial aid.
Daily agendas are linked at the website below:
There are three sessions today, and four sessions on the 16th, 22nd, & 24th

https://www.aicup.org/Collaboration/Campus-Leaders-Forum

If an institution is signed up to participate – there is no cost for you to join any session of interest.
June 16th as an example (11:15)
Title: Financial Aid Awareness: A Campus-Wide Initiative to Support Student Success
Presenters: Andrea Ruth, Eastern University Director of Financial Aid; Justin Rummel, Susquehanna University’s Assistant Vice President for Student Financial Services
Description: In this interactive session, learn from AICUP member panelists how college campuses can enhance student experiences through internal partnerships and awareness. In an increasingly competitive environment where higher education institutions work to engage families and students to help grow enrollment within a shrinking high school demographic, staff from Susquehanna University, Eastern University and Sallie Mae will share insight on how financial awareness across campuses ultimately support student success, retention, and graduation goals. This conversation is geared to help inform how cross-departmental partnerships and awareness can provide ways to continuously improve your students’ journey and keep them engaged.

[Author]

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