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 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

Benefits of AES letters Custom profiles for schools Provides initial and adjusted letters Ability to accept/decline awards 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 students 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

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.

Questions Carrie Lamont