When student aid was disbursed at the beginning of the autumn semester, the Financial Aid Office of the University of Texas in Arlington simply could not keep up. Emails and phone calls from students and parents spilled in the office. And even though the employees were doing their best, some consultations did not receive answers for a couple of weeks. As in many other colleges and universities across the country, the financial aid office was daring.
From mid-July, the financial aid staff of UT ARLINGTON has lost eight employees, more than 20 percent of their workforce. And even though things have calmed down from the beginning of the academic year, the office is still working to complete the vacancies, Karen Krause, Executive Director of the Office of Financial Aid, Scholarships and Veterans Benefits Processing University.
The shortage of personnel in UT ARLINGTON and other university financial aid offices are not necessarily unique. The United States faces a scarcity of generalized labor, nurses to pizza delivery drivers. In higher education, the shortage of workers extends through all facets of campus life, even in dining rooms. But having less employees at the Financial Aid Office can lead to the consequences that extend beyond the wait times of longer customers.
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"Not only does services decrease, especially at a time when students need the biggest help, but lack of security can also have a great impact on a school's ability to fulfill the litany of The federal and state requirements, "said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
Compliance is especially important now, with a new presidential administration that plans to decipher institutions that do not adhere to the federal standards of the student aid program. The Federal Student Aid Office in the Department of Education, recently announced that it is reviving the Compliance Office, which was prioritized under the Trump Administration, to "strengthen supervision and compliance actions against postsecondary schools that participate On the Federal Student Loan, grant and study programs. "
" In the end, schools can now pay, when hiring and retaining staff, or paying later, when they are out of compliance and face Possible federal fines and sanctions, "Draeger said. googleg.cmd.push (function () googleg.display ("dfp-ad-article_in_article"););
st. Petersburg College in Saint Petersburg, FLA, has had about five vacancies at their financial aid office in the last year and is waiting for four or five openings in the next year. Its losses have provided both long-standing employees who withdraw, as well as younger employees, going to other opportunities, according to Wayne Kruger, Executive Director of Financial Assistance Operations.
The University can not compete in the current labor market that favors employees about employers, Kruger said, since he can not pay wages that are comparable to what workers can find in the private sector , especially for work in the field of information technology. At the same time, employers are losing a lot of institutional knowledge of employees who have spent decades working on financial aid in St. Petersburg.
"Financial aid is the kind of profession where it really can not just come out of the street and hit the floor running," Kruger said. "There are higher ED positions that are more easily filled than their specialized jobs as their financial help people, we can not really afford to bring someone who has no financial aid experience".
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