Director of Financial Aid Marilyn Baker said that Western eliminated the overall institutional policy for 100- and 200-level classes because there were some regulatory changes that came through the U.S. Department of Education last year.

“Western is not an institution that is required to take attendance,” Baker said.

According to Baker, schools that require attendance policies for any classes can sustain fines regarding the time frame for filing. Schools have 14 days from the final day of class to report attendance. Additionally, schools that have attendance policies must have them for all class levels, so the policy could not have been limited to 100- and 200-level classes.

Baker said that the best decision they could come up with was to eliminate the 100 and 200-level classes attendance policy and go back to To sidestep this problem, a subcommittee from Enrollment Development decided that the individual departments and faculty members should establish their own attendance policies.

Faculty members have handled their attendance policies in different ways.

Cynthia Jeney, associate professor of English, said the freshmen games have stopped.

“Freshmen have stopped trying to ‘game’ the policy by attending every day until midterm, then disappearing. This was, of course, an erroneous assumption that students made that they only had to attend consistently until midterm, and we did our best to explain it, but there were still confusions,” Jeney said. “My sense is that some students feel that attendance is valued only by each professor, not by the institution as a whole.”

Professor of English Kaye Adkins basically went back to her old attendance policy, although she has started approaching attendance a little differently.

“I don’t worry about excused or unexcused absences anymore. I talk about sick days — just as you are allotted at a job — you are allotted a certain number of sick days in my classes and that’s tied to how many times a week we meet,” Adkins said. “I found that students were getting confused with the excused, unexcused thing, so I found it much easier to talk about them as sick days you get at work.”

It’s hard for students to take advantage of these changes in attendance policies because they can’t. Excused is excused and unexcused is still an unexcused absence that can affect the financial aid students will receive.

Jacob Scott, SGA executive vice president, thinks that by allowing professors the ability to set their own attendance policies it actually provides students flexibility.

“It’s far better to speak to a professor about attendance than to have something handed down from the federal government,” Scott said.

With all figures taken into consideration, the grand total for students enrolled for the summer semester was 3,335 which results in an 8.7 percent increase.

On the surface this sounds great, but diving into the numbers gives a different dynamic to the composition of those numbers, when compared to previous years.

All of the sessions (full term, first four, second four, and intersession) saw decreases according to the information provided by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jeanne Daffron; however, the online and off-schedule enrollments were up 47.29 percent. The second four-weeks and the intersession saw the biggest decreases at 48.6 percent and 35.79 percent, respectively. The total for that category doesn’t completely figure into the headcount number, but the total enrolled for those categories rose to 1,467, up by nearly 500 students.

As Western continues to face financial issues in the wake of raising its tuition, it seems that these increases will be short lived. Daffron seems confident that college education will still be seen as a benefit and may help counteract the increase.

“I know that any increase in cost has an impact on students who want to attend college; however, it is still true that higher education is a very good investment,” Daffron said.

According to Daffron, Western’s tuition is the third lowest in the state of Missouri, and Western commits about 12 percent of its budget to student scholarships.

Besides tuition increase, students will also have to keep an eye on their financial aid for this school year, as there have been changes to some grants.

Marilyn Baker, director of financial aid, said that the “Two Pell Grants in a Year Program” has been eliminated, but the maximum amount has remained the same.

“If a Pell Grant recipient does not attend full time in the fall and spring, the student would be eligible for a Pell in the summer,” Baker said. “They would not have used their entire scheduled award for the academic year.

Jennifer Griffin, a junior communications major, said that she feels the bigger impact will be financial aid.

“If there is a cut in financial aid and an increase in tuition, it will definitely make an impact on the enrollment at Missouri Western,” Griffin said.

Griffin also offered a potential solution to the financial problems facing Western.

“I also think that Missouri Western should look at their business degree students and see if they can come up with some new, out-of-the-box ideas tuition problems,” Griffin said.

At this point it’s somewhat of a wait-and-see game as to how this will affect enrollment for Western in the short term, but financial aid awards will need to go up to keep pace with increasing tuition. If not, some students may take fewer classes and some may take a semester off to pay for classes.

Fortunately, Western has seen amazing growth in enrollment and facilities the past few years and that may continue to help keep enrollment near current numbers.

The priority deadline for FAFSA is March 1. To submit their FAFSA, students must fill out tax forms for 2010, and possibly their parents’ taxes for 2010 if they live in their household.

Director of Financial Aid, Marilyn Baker, strongly considers submitting your FAFSA before the deadline.

“You need to do it prior to March first for priority financial aid purposes,” Baker said. “(We) highly encourage them to complete the 2011-12 FAFSA, which is available now, online. It’s there. It’s ready.”

If students need help filling out their FAFSA, Western will hold the annual “FAFSA Frenzy” this weekend.

On Sunday, Feb. 13 at 2 p.m., Western will give free help to students who need it. This includes students who attend Western, as well as high school students; incoming freshman and their parents are welcomed to come. Financial aid professionals will be on hand to assist those who need it. You may also have a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship just by attending. That is just one scholarship among many that will be handed out.

“We have financial aid like SUG (Student University Grant) which is a grant, work study, purposes loans, those type of aid scholarships,” Baker said. All of these will be available if students submit their FAFSA before March 1.

Students should bring their W-2 forms and 2010 tax returns. If forms are not ready, students should still bring their W-2 forms, but bring 2010 statements of interest earned and their 2009 forms.

According to the FAFSA Frenzy pamphlet, available at numerous locations around campus, if “inclement weather” occurs, the event will be held just one week later, on Sunday, Feb. 20. The FAFSA Frenzy will be located in Spratt Hall.

If students are unable to attend, they will still have two weeks before the priority deadline to get the information needed so they are able to get grant money that is available.

According to Angela Beam, former acting director of financial aid, “the federal government requires schools to have a policy in place that ensures students begin attendance in every course for which they are enrolled. The financial aid office is required to return 100 percent of funds for students who never attend any of their courses, required to prorate funds for students who begin attendance in some, but not all of their courses.  They are also required to return up to 50 percent of the money Western receives from the federal government for students who stop attending all of their courses during a term.”

“The federal government disburses more than $113 billion annually in financial assistance. As of Feb. 10, 2010, Western disbursed almost $40 million in financial assistance from all sources (federal grants, loans, work study, state grants and scholarships, Western funded sources and private financial aid sources).  Attendance verification and satisfactory academic progress policies continue to surface as topics that may need more standard (and stricter) regulation,” Beam said.

Cindy Conrad, acting associate director in the financial aid office, takes these regulations very seriously. “If we lose our financial aid, then we [students] lose the opportunity to attend classes,” Conrad said. Conrad, along with Deana Wennihan, who is the Default Prevention Coordinator of the same office give a College 101 presentation to all incoming freshman that cover the details of receiving financial aid.

“Young people coming out of high school typically don’t have anyone telling them what to do, but tend to learn life lessons,” Wennihan said. “Going to class and getting good grades are the job of the student, and federal government aid is their paycheck.”

When a student’s GPA slips below federal standards, or stop attending classes after receiving any type of assistance financially, they are required to attend a seminar in which they have to sign a contract stating they will attend classes, use the Center of Academic Support and tutoring among other requirements. During this time, the student is on academic probation until they improve their grades and comply with the attendance policy. This can be accomplished in as little as one semester, but can extend for multiple semesters until such requirements are met. The student runs the risk of losing all types of aid available such as Pell grants, Stafford loans or scholarships.

Wennihan is very passionate about the success of the student who has to rely on assistance in order to attend classes.
“We care about every student and don’t want them to lose the opportunity since they are the future of the world,” Wennihan said.

She also prepares the SAP or Satisfactory Academic Progress seminars.

“Any time a student is considering dropping a class, or withdrawing can stop by the financial aid office and ask questions to see how this affects them,” Conrad said.

Wennihan also encourages students to go to the financial aid webpage and read up on all the information, rules and regulations that govern any institution of higher learning who offers financial assistance. The web address is: www.missouriwestern.edu/finaid/.