To increase the quality of customer service provided to our current and prospective students.

A card swiping system will be implemented to track students coming into the office, which will improve student service.  We anticipate this system will tell us more about who the students are - why they are visiting us and the number coming in for various reasons.  Reasons could include: submitting paperwork, checking to see if they are awarded, checking on loan status, checking on a refund, special circumstances due to job loss or unable to obtain parental data for the FAFSA, requesting additional funding, and other possible reasons.

This is the baseline year for the Tutor Track system in our office.  This system will track the student, each time they visit, and the reason for their visit.  We hope to use this system to track calls as well.  This will allow the office to know who the student has spoken with and why, which will allow us to better assist the student.  Knowing the reasons for students needing assistance will also point out weak areas in which training is needed, or consumer information updates are needed.  It will help us to also focus where we need our resources in the future.  We expect to run reports at least weekly to target areas needing immediate attention, but will also run monthly reports in order to gauge what we must focus on at different times of year.  We do not have any hard numbers anticipated, since this is the first year this system will be implemented.  We will use this information to set goals for the next assessment cycle.

Due to unforseen circumstances, SHSU was unable to purchase new tracking/scheduling software through which our office would have utilized a card swiping system.  No results available for this KPI.

The card system that SHSU planned to purchase did not come to fruition, so the IT department is considering developing a home-grown system.  Due to the many projects they currently have, there is no time frame in place at this time.  We will add this objective to a future cycle once a new card swiper system is either developed or purchased.

Financial Aid Counselors will receive feedback to ensure the quality of presentations during outreach events.

The Financial Aid Counselors will ask students and parents who attend financial aid presentations to complete a short survey at the end of the presentation.  Surveys will include Likert-type scale and open-ended questions.  Results will be used to improve presentation material and delivery.  The survey (attached) was created by the Senior Financial Aid Counselor in collaboration with other seasoned employees, reflecting years of knowledge, which validates the measures.  This is our first year using surveys to improve service, but we are expecting results to be in the 4 to 5 point range, indicating that they found the presentation very good to exellent.  Open-ended questions will be used to make immediate changes if needed.

Two types of surveys were handed out; one for presentations and one for workshops.  121 presentation surveys were returned, and 6 workshop presentations were returned.  92-96% of presentation respondents marked a 4 or 5 for very good to excellent on each of the 4 Likert-type questions.  100% of workshop respondents marked 4 or 5 for very good to excellent on each of the 3 Likert-type questions. 

We were pleased with the survey outcomes, and did receive many comments to help to improve our presentations.  Although many surveys were returned, they were only from six separate events.  We will continue to hand out surveys, and will be sure to take them to all events at which we can feasibly request responses.  Due to the nature of some events, summer orientation for instance, surveys may not be feasible.

To utilize the Banner software features and functionality to increase efficiency and improve the financial aid award process.

Increase efficiency (awarding more students within the same timeframe) by reviewing electronic documents, rather than hard copies for the verification process.

We are implementing a paperless process for reviewing students selected for verification.  In the recent past, verification paperwork was constantly reviewed as it came in, whether complete packets or partial packets were submitted.  This has been very inefficient, and contributed to delays and mistakes.  Currently, we do not accept incomplete packets, and verification will be reviewed through BDMS (scanning system through Banner) only when all required items are submitted for a student's file.  This will increase efficiency, reduce delays and mistakes, and increase the number of files completed for verification.  With less time needed to process paperwork, our staff will be able to spend more time personally contacting students who need to make corrections to their files.

During the previous award cycle we awarded 1929 incoming students by 3/27/13, and a total of 7753 students (all incoming and returning students) by 6/3/13.  For the next award cycle we expect to award 2000 incoming students by 3/31/14 and a total of 8500 students by 6/3/14.  There are some new variables this year that may keep these numbers from being higher: We will only complete verification on students who list SHSU as one of the top 3 schools on the FAFSA (they can list up to 10), or those who are admitted; and, the IRS just announced in November 2013 that they are behind on processing paperwork due to the government shutdown, so they will not begin processing 2013 income tax returns until 1/28/14-2/4/14.  This could delay students being able to complete their verification paperwork.  Even with these variables, we do expect to exceed the previous cycle's numbers.

We identified two groups of students: incoming (new to SHSU for the upcoming fall) and continuing (previously or currently attending SHSU). 

2013-14 award cycle:
Incoming awarded by 3/27/13 = 1929
Incoming and continuing combined awarded by 6/3/13 = 7753

2014-15 award cycle:
Incoming awarded by 3/31/14 = 667
Incoming and continuing combined awarded by 6/6/14 = 9494

Percent change:
Incoming only = 65.4% decrease
Combined total = 22.4% increase

Additional numbers - we do not have a comparison from the 2013-14 cycle, but this data is important, as this was the first year that we awarded continuing students for the next academic year prior to the end of the spring semester:

• 667 incoming students awarded by 3-31-14
• 2942 incoming and continuing students awarded by 4-1-14
• 9136 total students awarded by 5-30-14
• 9494 total students awarded by 6-6-14

By focusing on reviewing files for students who selected SHSU as one of their top three schools on the FAFSA, and reviewing only those with complete financial aid verification packets, we were much more efficient this year and never fell behind schedule with awarding.  We will continue to verify students in this manner.  We are also giving more attention to enrolled students versus non-enrolled.  For instance, we typically sent award notification emails only to the SHSU email account, and kept track of the number of students who accepted their aid.  This summer we started to send emails more often and alternated between the SHSU and FAFSA emails.  We also noticed that a relatively low percentage of awarded students had actually accepted their awards, but the percentages were much higher when we concentrated on the number of students who accepted that financial aid that were ADMITTED to SHSU.  We will continue to keep track of this type of data with hopes of increasing our numbers next awarding cycle.

An increase in students applying for SHSU scholarships through Scholar X will raise standards of the applicant pool from which committees select recipients.

The Scholarship Coordinator will employ a variety of strategies to increase the number of ScholarX applications for SHSU scholarships for this award cycle. 

The current Scholarships Coordinator began working in our office in February 2012, so she had no control over the number of applications received that year by the priority deadline of February 1st, which was a total of 1667.  The number of applications increased to 2132 as of February 1, 2013 through her efforts: presentations given to classes on campus, information table in the mall area on campus and in the Lowman Student Center, and collaboration with academic departments to provide additional support. 

We expect to increase the number of applications for this award cycle to 2600 by February 1, 2014 through additional strategies: pre-filled ScholarX application for returning students and collaboration with the SHSU Writing Center to provide tips to students on completing the essay portion.

2013-14 award cycle:
Applications received by 2/1/13 = 2132

2014-15 award cycle:
Applications received by 2/1/14 = 2227

Percent change:  4.5% increase

Through a number of strategies employed throughout the year, we did see a slight increase in the number of Scholar X applications.  We will continue to utilize those strategies throughout 2014-15 for the 2015-16 application: pre-filled Scholar X for returning students, collaboration with the SHSU Writing Center, classroom presentations, information tables on campus, and collaborations with academic departments.  We will also target monthly emails to students to remind them to complete the application.  The only reminder email that was sent was in mid-January to students who started but did not complete the application.  We hope that sending monthly emails early on will increase the number of application. 

We also heavily collaborated with the Undergraduate Admissions Office Counselors this summer to train them on financial aid.  They worked in our office and assisted with our incoming phone calls.  Through the knowledge they gained about financial aid and scholarship programs and deadlines, especially Terry Scholars and Sam Scholars, we expect this information to be made available during their recruiting season.