The previous few months have been attempting for Saint Louis College’s scholar monetary assist workplace, which labored extra time attempting to course of and distribute monetary assist packages to potential college students.
Like monetary assist directors throughout the nation, staff on the Jesuit analysis college in Missouri have been navigating the myriad delays and technical glitches that accompanied the rollout of the brand new, streamlined Free Software for Federal Scholar Support.
“We had been actually doing 5 months price of labor in a span of some weeks,” stated Alex DeLonis, assistant vice chairman of scholar monetary providers at Saint Louis.
“It put quite a lot of strain on the staff,” he added. “And quite a lot of strain on administration and management to attempt to make it possible for everybody felt supported and never burned out.”
Monetary assist professionals say their work is rewarding, as they supply pathways for college students to attend school. However the botched FAFSA rollout is simply the newest problem staff have confronted in a discipline already beset by staffing shortages and turnover.
The primary main redesign of FAFSA in 40 years promised to supply school hopefuls a less complicated course of for making use of for federal monetary assist, comparable to scholar loans and Pell Grants.
However issues went awry from the get-go, when the U.S. Division of Training rolled out the brand new type on the finish of December, almost three months later than the standard Oct. 1 launch. Schools additionally didn’t begin receiving FAFSA applicant information till March — delaying info that’s important to assembling monetary assist packages. That was adopted by numerous technical glitches that required many functions to be reprocessed.
“What we’re listening to is simply frustration and exhaustion,” stated Jill Desjean, senior coverage analyst on the Nationwide Affiliation of Scholar Monetary Support Directors. “It’s simply been a very tiring course of and a tiring cycle.”
The Training Division has labored to resolve points as they arrive up and to supply help to monetary assist workplaces. Nonetheless, the problems have taken a toll.
“The hits maintain coming,” stated Desjean. “It was only one extra of these, ‘Ugh, not once more.’ It appears like monetary assist directors simply can’t catch a break this yr.”
“I name it post-traumatic FAFSA dysfunction.”
Throughout an April 10 congressional listening to on the Training Division’s funds in fiscal 2025, U.S. Training Secretary Miguel Cardona stated he understood the state of affairs that monetary assist directors had been in. The division, Cardona stated, was working “across the clock” to make sure college students have the data they should make knowledgeable school selections.
“I perceive the challenges that our college students, our households, our universities, monetary assist directors are dealing with. There’s nothing extra essential proper now on the Division of Training,” Cardona stated.
The Training Division allotted $50 million in February to nonprofit teams to assist underresourced faculties course of monetary assist types.
The division additionally supplied some regulatory flexibilities to high schools, comparable to lowering FAFSA applicant verification necessities and suspending new opinions by way of June that test whether or not establishments are assembly numerous federal requirements.
Regardless of these efforts, the previous couple of months have been “fairly worrying” for the College of Maryland International Campus’ monetary assist programs staff, stated Heather Hensgen, a enterprise analyst inside UMGC’s monetary assist programs division.
Issues have lastly began to settle down. However at one level over the course of two or three months, the staff was getting every day updates about errors and points with the FAFSA from the Training Division and Oracle, which supplies the campus with software program to course of FAFSA functions and create monetary assist packages.
Hensgen stated she couldn’t belief that the FAFSA info the Training Division was sending over was appropriate. Oracle’s software program hit snags as a result of the corporate was navigating the assorted division delays, she added.
UMGC’s monetary assist staff wanted to determine what was taking place, attempt to clarify developments to college students after which make changes to the college’s system for processing monetary assist functions, based on Hensgen.
The most important problem was monitoring whether or not bugs they skilled when processing FAFSA functions had been occurring due to the Training Division or the Oracle software program not working correctly as a result of company’s delays and glitches. They needed to maintain tabs on which replace mounted every challenge, she stated.
“I name it post-traumatic FAFSA dysfunction as a result of now that we’re on what I really feel like is the opposite aspect of it, it feels such as you went by way of a twister,” stated Hensgen.
The uncertainty combined with the strain felt over the previous couple of months to get households the data they should make school selections “has been like nothing I’ve skilled in my profession,” stated DeLonis, of Saint Louis.
“Working with my staff and monetary assist colleagues throughout the nation, they’re all type of feeling the identical factor,” he stated.
As of late Could, the college had gotten assist gives out to a lot of the households that had submitted FAFSAs to the school, stated DeLonis.
Extra turnover forward?
In accordance with a joint NASFAA and CUPA-HR report launched final month, almost 56% of 298 monetary assist professionals surveyed in 2023 — earlier than the FAFSA debacle — reported being considerably to very more likely to go away their job throughout the subsequent 12 months. Greater than half stated they had been considering exploring alternatives outdoors of upper schooling.
As to why, monetary assist staff largely named wanting increased pay, the power to work remotely and versatile work schedules.
“We’ve been struggling for the reason that pandemic with folks leaving, excessive turnover,” stated Desjean. After this yr, “we’re going to see much more folks reporting burnout, reporting turnover, reporting having difficulties filling positions.”
At Saint Louis, the 30-member monetary assist staff skilled some turnover throughout the present cycle, however the quantity of people that left didn’t appear “too out of the atypical,” stated DeLonis. It’s unclear whether or not anybody left due to the elevated workload, he stated.
All staff in Saint Louis’ monetary assist workplace confronted peaks and valleys within the hours they wanted to work over the previous few months, stated DeLonis.
Its programs staff “was working across the clock to get issues up and operating with our assist gives,” he stated. “All of that’s automated, digital, it takes an enormous quantity of tech assist to try this.”
To assist with the workload, the monetary assist workplace just lately employed a brand new programs analyst, he stated.
“It appears like monetary assist directors simply can’t catch a break this yr.”
Jill Desjean
Senior coverage analyst, Nationwide Affiliation of Scholar Monetary Support Directors
UMGC’s monetary assist programs staff of 12 didn’t must work further hours, nonetheless, and managed to proceed its wholesome work-life steadiness, stated Hensgen. The staff was “resilient,” she defined, with everybody coming collectively to do their half and get the work executed, she stated. They skilled zero turnover throughout the cycle, she stated.
The monetary assist neighborhood is altering “thousands and thousands of lives yearly,” stated Frank Ballmann, director of federal relations on the Nationwide Affiliation of State Scholar Grant and Support Applications.
As troublesome because the job is, it’s laborious to stroll away from it as a result of folks within the occupation know it’s essential that they proceed that work, stated Ballmann. Nonetheless, if the state of affairs just isn’t mounted by subsequent yr, the need amongst many staff to proceed underneath that stress might change.
“If that is only a one-time glitch and subsequent yr’s FAFSA cycle goes superb, folks will recover from it,” Ballmann stated. “But when subsequent yr is like this yr, you already know, you undoubtedly hear lots of people speaking about burnout and time to alter fields.”
‘Like climbing up Mount Everest’
On Could 30, Cardona introduced steps the Training Division would take to modernize and enhance the Federal Scholar Support workplace. These steps included conducting a “full-scale overview” of FSA’s group, administration, workflows, enterprise processes and operations. The division can also be bringing in an impartial consulting agency to suggest methods to enhance the workplace.
In the meantime, FSA just lately introduced that the workplace’s chief working officer, Wealthy Cordray would step down from the place on the finish of June. It should deliver on School Board President Jeremy Singer to function an govt advisor to supervise the FAFSA within the 2025-26 assist cycle.
Such enhancements to the workplace’s operations could possibly be important to serving to the monetary assist occupation.
Trying forward, Desjean stated she doesn’t anticipate “we’ll see the catastrophe of this yr,” repeated subsequent yr because the Training Division won’t be constructing a wholly new system once more.
This month, the Training Division introduced it was nonetheless aiming to fulfill the Oct. 1 rollout for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. The company stated it won’t make any further main modifications to the shape and can bypass public touch upon it this yr.
Desjean has some confidence that the Training Division will meet that rollout date, however just isn’t satisfied the division could have the whole course of prepared by then — comparable to permitting college students and colleges to make corrections.
Nonetheless, she additionally hopes the division doesn’t rush to “put one thing out by Oct. 1 as a result of they really feel like they’ve to avoid wasting face, after which discover out issues don’t work,” she stated.
“Now that we’re on what I really feel like is the opposite aspect of it, it feels such as you went by way of a twister.”
Heather Hensgen
Enterprise analyst, College of Maryland International Campus’ monetary assist programs division
For the monetary assist administrator occupation, it’s essential for the Training Division to run a clean FAFSA course of subsequent yr, stated Desjean.
If subsequent yr isn’t clean, “the problems from this yr can be compounded,” she stated.
Whereas Hensgen stated she expects some points once more subsequent yr, she nonetheless predicts a a lot smoother cycle.
“I’m certain we’ll expertise some points, however that’s simply monetary assist,” stated Hensgen. “I’m hoping that classes have been discovered and going ahead, it won’t be as rocky of a rollout as this yr was — as a result of this was actually like climbing up Mount Everest.”
