Student grant funds finally arrive

At least 2,546 Ohio University students finally received their Ohio College Opportunity Grant disbursements on Monday that they had expected to receive at the beginning of fall quarter.

So far, OU has disbursed $947,520 in OCOG funds, and the university's Financial Aid office estimates a total of $2.7 million will be paid out for the academic year, said Sondra Williams, director of financial aid.

Many students took out extra student loans when they didn't receive the grant money because they had counted on it for expenses during the quarter.

Junior Rose Keyes said she was relieved when the funds finally came through, but she had already gotten extra loans to be able to pay her bills fall quarter.

While she now has more money in her bank account than she expected, she had been worried about having enough money to afford tuition with the decrease and delay of the disbursement.

"I was concerned about what would happen if I didn't get it," she said. "I rely on that money to pay my bills."

In the spring, the Ohio Board of Regents quoted an estimated grant amount to OU's Financial Aid office so that it could put a projected quarterly amount on students' award letters, which are sent out in May. However, after the state of Ohio's biennial budget passed on July 1, the Board of Regents' allocated amount for the grant was cut by an estimate of $1,488 per student.

"That's quite a chunk of change to not let anybody know until July," Williams said.

The Board of Regents then had to recalculate grant amounts for eligible students, which they could not complete until the end of October. After they completed their new student rosters for the OCOG, they sent them to schools. OU and many other schools chose to wait until they received the finalized roster to disburse any payments. In case there were any mistakes, OU didn't want to have to put their students through any more grief by asking for money back.

"We knew it could change, and it was already a mess with the reduction and everything; we didn't want to put stuff out there," Williams said. "We wanted to make sure that we weren't jerking our students around more than they'd already been since July."

When OU President Roderick McDavis and other members of the administration realized the grant money might not arrive till the end of the quarter, they chose to provide a supplement to students to help with the unexpected decrease as well as the delay in arrival of funds. Even though it only amounted to several hundred dollars per student, it was quite a relief to some students who needed the money to pay the bills, Williams said. Also, the Bursar's office helped students who were expecting the funds to cover fall tuition and didn't drop them from classes.

"It shows that the university is interested in our neediest students," she said. "The best well-laid plans don't always play out like they were supposed to."

Keyes said that finally receiving the grant was a relief, but she is skeptical that she will receive the money on time for the rest of the school year.

"I think that next quarter I'll probably have the same situation where I will not have enough financial aid coming through that I can rely on," she said.

Even though the last several months have been stressful, Williams said now that the information is in the system, payments will be on time along with the beginning of the quarter.

"Some students have even probably forgotten that this was even happening and it's been kind of a nice surprise," she said. "It's been kind of a tough year all the way around."