Members 2003-2004: |
Lawrence D. Abraham, Edmund (Ted) Gordon, Glenn Y. Masada, Martin
Poenie, Elizabeth C. Pomeroy
|
| Faculty Council Appointees: |
Neville Hoad, Charles R. Rossman
|
Students: |
Tatiana L. Canales, Christine D. Hines, Tracie A. Jones, Robert L.
Martinez, Bradley F. Wallace
|
| Administrative Advisors: |
Lawrence W. Burt, John D. Dollard, Susan Alvarado-Boyd
|
Committee Function
The official function of the committee is to initiate and review policies
and procedures regarding financial aid matters and to hear student appeals
regarding decisions of the Office of Student Financial Services.
Introduction
Associate Vice President Lawrence Burt provided to the committee
an assessment of the state of financial aid at UT Austin. The largest amount
of financial aid money that flows through the UT Office of Student Financial
Services is in the form of loans. With regard to scholarships, UT is second
after Harvard in National Merit Scholarships and first in National Hispanic
Scholarships. Scholarships from foundations like the Terry, Gates, Ford, etc.
are also substantial. In addition, UT offers an impressive amount of aid for
non-academic performance in the areas of music, athletics, and community service.
There were also a number of scholarships devoted to increasing diversity at
the University. The President's Achievement Scholarship (PAS) is a multi-level,
multi-year scholarship based on an adversity index, the Longhorn Opportunity
Scholarship (LOS) is a broad-spectrum scholarship and support program for
students from high schools that are under-represented at UT Austin, and the
First Generation Scholarship is awarded to first generation students from
HB400 high schools.
Financial Aid Survey of Undergraduate Students
The continued increase in the
cost of higher education will probably trigger an increase in the number of
students serviced by the Office of Student Financial Services (OSFS). The
OSFS has done an excellent job in improving the process that students and
families use to receive financial aid assistance. However, the committee chair,
at the behest of the committee and in an effort to seek continuous improvement
in services, appointed a sub-committee led by Professor Lawrence Abraham to
develop a Web-based survey to explore how students view the services offered
by the financial aid office. This effort may suggest improvements in the
various aspects of the service provided. The survey was conducted in the
spring of 2004. Funding to conduct the survey was provided by the Office
of Student Financial Services.
Financial Aid Survey of Graduate Students
Committee member Roger Martinez
conducted an informal survey of graduate students. He found that there is
a wide diversity between departments in what financial aid they provide their
students. Lawrence Burt noted that the financial aid office helps relatively
few graduate students and has only the federal loan programs and a pittance
of the Texas Public Education Grant (TPEG) money to disperse to graduate students.
The office can help only about 2,500 out of 11,000 graduate students.
Ron Brown Scholarships
The children of UT Austin faculty and staff were encouraged
to apply for the Ronald M. and Marilou D. Brown Endowed Scholarship, named
in honor of the former vice president for student affairs and his wife. The
scholarship is awarded only to full-time undergraduate students (including
incoming freshmen and transfer students) who are the offspring of regular,
retired, or deceased UT Austin faculty or staff.
The committee is in the process of evaluating the recipients of this distinguished
scholarship. The recipients will be announced prior to July 1, 2004.
Elizabeth C. Pomeroy, chair
