< Back | Home

In order to receive funds from the Oregon Opportunity Grant, or to qualify for other federal aid, students are required to fill out the FAFSA. Students should file by Western's priority date of March 1, to be considered for school and/or state need-based aid.

Western increases financial aid for spring 2009

Western uses reserves to honor student grants reduced by the state

By: Erin Huggins

Posted: 1/28/09

Western lost little time in responding to Oregon Student Assistance Commission (OSAC) financial aid cuts that decreased state-wide funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant and affected 1,225 Western students who had been expecting aid for spring term 2009.
Although demand for the grant has been increasing, Associate Provost David McDonald said Western had been expecting the grant to decrease in response to the economic recession and had already started crunching numbers to find a student-friendly solution.
By the time OSAC board members announced the decision on Friday, Jan. 9, to reduce spring awards by $80 for full-time students and $40 for part-time students, Western was ready to intervene.
"We knew what was coming. What we didn't know was the magnitude of the cut," McDonald said.
According to McDonald, almost three quarters of Western students receive financial aid.
Donna Fossum, director of financial aid, said that 33 percent of those students are affected by the reduction of Oregon Opportunity Grant funding.
In order to honor its commitment to enrolled students, Western decided to provide funds to students who had filed FAFSAs by Dec. 1, 2008, and were expecting to receive spring Oregon Opportunity Grant funds.
The Oregon Opportunity Grant is a state funded grant program that assists low- to middle-income Oregonians.
McDonald said students receiving the grant already had the fewest resources and were least able to afford to lose any portion of their aid.
"We could step up and hold students harmless for a cut that (they) had absolutely nothing to do with. They were doing what the state wanted them to do-going to college," McDonald said. "Investing [money] back into our students' success made all the sense in the world."
In addition to providing money to cover the Oregon Opportunity Grant, Western also added $250,000 to supplement its federal Perkins Loan repayment pool.
"The Federal Perkins Loan program is a low interest loan program available to students with need," Fossum said. "The amount that can be awarded depends on the amount of collections WOU receives from former WOU students who are repaying their Perkins Loans."
Although the two aid deficits were not related, McDonald said their causes ran parallel to each other. Likewise, the university's decision to help arose simultaneously.
"They were caused by the same macroeconomics, that is, the recession," he said.
Western's student repayment rate on the Perkins loan had dropped to the point where Western would not be able to fund new loans for spring term.
Failure to provide additional funds would prevent some Western students from staying in school.
"We used institutional money to make up the difference," McDonald said. "We looked at both issues and said, 'Let's just take care of all of this at once.'"
No one knows for sure how much funding the Oregon Opportunity Grant will receive for next year, though McDonald said it ranks high on the Governor's priority list and is well-supported across the state.
Meanwhile, Western has already decided to increase financial aid again for the 2009-10 school year. Some of the increased funds may filter back into holes caused by the loss of state dollars; other monies will be spread across campus.
"While no one likes a cut, this small cut is on top of a huge increase; students are so much better funded than they were a year ago," McDonald said. "We should not get caught up in what we lost without realizing what we've really gained in the last 12 months."