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One college in Florida, Florida State College at Jacksonville, is forcing students to pay back their financial aid. That tactic sure is cruel.
According to a piece by Kathryn Jeffries at First Coast News (Jacksonville):
After multiple audits, Florida State College at Jacksonville revealed during a news conference Tuesday that the latest financial audits found that a high error rate was found in the financial aid department.
The base of the issue is the alleged misappropriation of Pell Grants. Now some students are being forced to pay back that Pell Grant money they received. That’s nearly $3 million combined.
Students who were inaccurately approved for financial aid have been sent letters, said James McCollum, FSCJ’s chair of the board of trustees. To keep the aid monies, students will need to provide documentation that shows they are rightly due aid.
I’m not specifically involved in the situation in this college, but providing students with money and then saying they actually can’t have it can be very, very difficult for student finances, even if the college was wrong in the first place.
This situation seems rather similar to what happens when colleges mistakenly send out acceptance letters to students it planned to reject.
No, it’s not appropriate to toy with students’ emotions and finances like that: if you screw up and distribute too much financial aid, the aid should apply and the students should get what they were promised; the college should eat the difference. It’s the college’s fault. It should should pay for these mistakes, not the kids.
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Snarki, child of Loki on June 11, 2012 1:06 PM:
Completely agree. And the admins that screwed up (and who now want the money back) should have their paychecks docked retractively, just to let them feel what it's like.
Beth Fuson on June 12, 2012 11:33 AM:
I'm curious:have you ever worked for one day in a financial aid office? If you haven't, maybe you should reserve judgment until you know what you are talking about. Pell Grants are federal dollars, not institutional dollars. The school may not be LEGALLY permitted to give those students that money. In many cases, allowing the students to keep the money might result in what is called "over-awarding". Students are only eligible for aid in the amount that equals cost of attendance. If allowing the students to keep the money results in an over-award, the college is running afoul of the policies that govern federal financial aid. It isn't ideal, but those are the rules and they exist for a reason. Here is an idea: maybe instead of telling people how you (with your limited knowledge)think others SHOULD do their jobs, maybe YOU should stop to think that there probably are reasons for the things they do or maybe you should get a new job---in a financial aid office--where you actually learn how the process works.