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

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.

Presentation and Workshop Surveys - four Likert-type questions on a scale of 1-5 from poor to excellent (three questions for workshops)

2013-14 academic year
Number of surveys returned: 127
Response:  92-96% of presentation respondents marked a 4 or 5 for very good to excellent on each of the questions.  100% of workshop respondents marked 4 or 5 for very good to excellent on each of the 3 questions. 

2014-15 academic year
Number of surveys returned:  185
Response:  94-100% marked a 4 or 5 for each of the 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 a few separate events.  We were not able to attend as many events this year compared to 2013-14 due to being short-staffed and having budget restrictions for travel.  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.

In 2014-15 we implemented a paperless process for reviewing students selected for verification.  Previously, verification paperwork was constantly reviewed as it came in, whether complete packets or partial packets were submitted.  This was very inefficient, and contributed to delays and mistakes.  Currently, we do not accept incomplete packets, and verification is 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 667 incoming students by 3/31/14, and a total of 9494 students (all incoming and returning students) by 6/6/14.  For the next award cycle we expect to award 2000 incoming students by 3/31/15 and a total of 10,000 students by 6/3/15. 

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

2014-15 award cycle:
Incoming awarded by 3/31/14 = 667
Incoming and continuing students awarded by 4/1/14 = 2942
Incoming and continuing combined awarded by 6/6/14 = 9494

2015-16 award cycle:
Incoming awarded by 3/27/15 = 2834
Incoming and continuing students awarded by 4/5/15 = 4652
Incoming and continuing combined awarded by 6/5/15 = 10,568

Percent change:
Incoming only = 325% increase
Combined total by April = 58% increase
Combined total by June = 11% increase

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.  In Summer 2014 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.  As of February 1, 2014 applications increased slightly to 2227 (4.5% increase)

We expect to increase the number of applications for this award cycle to 2400 by February 1, 2015 by continuing our strategies, such as pre-filled ScholarX application for returning students and collaboration with the SHSU Writing Center to provide tips to students on completing the essay portion.

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

2015-16 award cycle:
Applications received by 2/1/15 = 2181

Percent change:  2.1% decrease

The past 3 award cycles have remained stagnant regarding the number of applications received by the priority deadline.  The ScholarX application has also been not well-received since its inception for several departments on campus, and has been lengthy to the point of discouraging students from completing the application. 

SHSU recently purchased and implemented new scholarship software from Academic Works for the 2016-17 cycle.  The application was named Scholarships4Kats and opened September 1, 2015.  This streamlined application dramatically simplifies the process for students by importing key information from the student data record and allowing students to be considered for all relevant scholarships.

The Scholarships Coordinator has been reaching out to all of the departments on campus to inform them of the change and how this new application will work, and how it will be a vast improvement over what they experienced with the previous application.  The new application has been advertised to students through social media and flyers will be printed and distributed around campus.  We plan to also put a notification in the weekly Student Services email and create an email to go out to all current students prior to the break between fall and spring.