Digging deep

Despite legislation intended to make college more affordable, many UB students are still struggling to pay for school with little hope of a reprieve in sight.

Since June 13, UB changed its financial aid policy, leaving more students without the option of financial aid – which means that more students than ever before are left without a means to pay for school.

Nicole Eberth, a senior psychology major, is among those effected.

'I worked to hard to get my GPA up and now they take my financial aid away,' Eberth said. 'I feel punished for working hard. I'm pissed and the worst part is that [the financial aid office] gave me little notice of the change.'

Prior to June 2009, in order to be eligible for financial aid a student had to have fewer than 180 completed credit hours as well as a 65 percent completion rate for all attempted hours. Now, the policy has changed to what UB is calling Satisfactory Academic Progress—a student now must have under 180 attempted credit hours and a 70 percent course completion rate to obtain institutional financial aid.

Now all courses count toward the 180-credit limit, not just finished classes. All incompletes, resignations, absents due to military leave, failures and withdrawals still count as courses in the eyes of the financial aid office.

According to Michael Ryan, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, the change in UB's policy was not solely a University decision.

'We had to make the change in the financial aid policy in order to be in compliance with federal guidelines,' Ryan said. 'The federal government has a set of standards for financial aid eligibility and we must follow them.'

Students don't seem to understand the reasoning behind the change, mostly because they were never given a straight answer.

'After weeks of phone calls, a financial aid officer finally told me that the change was implemented to help motivate students to perform well academically,' Eberth said. 'I'm finally performing well academically and I get all my aid, including my loans, taken away and I could barely afford to pay for school. That's not motivation.'

'UB is not victimizing students with the change,' Ryan said. 'We are only changing policy so we can comply with longstanding federal guidelines. What students need to understand is that these federal guidelines aren't static and when they change. We must, too.'

It's not just those who were in rocky academic waters that were affected, either. Many students who transferred in with credits or have changed majors are having their financial aid ties cut as well.

Emmanuel Hudson, a senior psychology major, said that the Student Response Center told him that only a handful of students would be affected by the change. As a transfer student to UB who had changed his major, he thought he was just one of the unlucky few who were over the credit limit—it turned out, however, that he wasn't as alone as he thought.

'Fifty-six students in my [Educational Opportunity Program] program dropped out because financial aid was the only way they could pay for school,' Hudson said. 'Private loans weren't an option because of family [issues] and whatnot.'

The EOP now estimates that over 2,000 UB students were left without financial aid this fall, most of which weren't able to take out private loans and who are now struggling to make monthly payments to the school.

'I'm taking 27 credits this semester to try and finish my degree early to save money,' said Rashod Custon, a senior biomedical sciences and psychology major.

'It's hard to take that many classes and still work enough to make my monthly payments for school, but it's what I've got to do. I think my only other option might be to join the military,' Custon said. 'The part that is weird to me is how a new policy can affect returning students. That seems like breach of contract. It should only affect incoming classes. It should be illegal.'

Currently, SBI Legal Assistance is looking into the legality of the situation. So far, no decision has been reached though nothing points in the direction of illegality as federal student aid is renewed each year when a student files his or her FAFSA.

'Financial aid is appropriated every semester based on the federal guidelines that UB complies with,' Ryan said. 'Each academic year, a student's financial aid status could change.'

Though students can generally apply for an appeal on their financial aid decision, many students, like Hudson, are finding that an appeal is no longer an option either.

According to Hudson, the SRC told him that he could no longer apply for an appeal on the decision because his number of attempted credit hours is clearly over limit for the new policy.

Both Hudson and Custon feel trapped into graduating early, rushing their degrees because they have too many credits to be eligible for aid.

Eberth, on the other hand, feels she's being punished for past mistakes. This is her fourth year in school but she only has 63 credits and her completion rate is below the required 70 percent. She blames this on the fact that she had a hard time adjusting to college life as a commuter student.

'My GPA is finally in an excellent position and yet I'm being screwed over,' Eberth said.

According to Eberth, she was notified that her financial aid was being taken away a week before school started in an e-mail from the SRC.

'I thought they just meant my TAP and other federal aid, not my loans through UB too,' Eberth said. 'I had a week to find a private loan and unfortunately I'm stuck with a variable high interest rate private loan, but it was my only option if I wanted to stay in school. It's frustrating because I finally get my act together and everything falls apart anyway.'

Eberth looked into leaving the university, but was held back due to the quality of the program.

'I would love to change schools if I could, but unfortunately UB's psychology program is excellent and leaving would be a detriment to my education,' Eberth said. 'I'm beyond upset.'

Eberth is most angry about the short notice and the fact that no one seemed to know about the situation, even her academic advisers.

'My entire four years at UB, none of my advisers told me that this would be a problem,' Eberth said. 'They told me that if I felt I was going to fail a class I should drop it. My adviser even went down to the [SRC] after I said something because they didn't know about it.'

While students, EOP and academic advisors claim that they could have been better forewarned about the situation, UB stands firm in its belief that the policy change was nothing more than a move to stay within the confines of federal law.

The next step for students looking to change the fate of their financial aid decision is to call or write their congressman about pushing forward the federal legislation regarding college costs.

Eberth called Congressman Chris Lee (R-NY) and he personally called UB helping her get at least her TAP grant back for this school year.

'Definitely call someone,' Eberth said. 'They can help. They are there to help when things don't feel fair and this definitely does not feel fair.'

E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com