Diane Arias/Staff Writer
As of summer 2012, students on federal financial aid will no longer be able to use the summer semester to make up credit hour deficiency.
In the past, if students were receiving federal financial aid, they had to take credits toward their degree while making academic progress.
The way the University and the federal government define academic progress is that students have to complete a percentage of their credits each year, maintain academic standing so that they are eligible and complete their degree within a certain amount of time.
The component that has changed is completing the certain percentage of credits each year.
At the University, students have to pass 67 percent of every course attempted in the fall and spring.
Before, if this requirement was not met, students could get financial aid and make it up in the summer. If students did not want to take classes to make up during the summer, they had another alternative.
“[If] you could not go to summer school, you [could] appeal and say something happened that wasn’t your fault. Perhaps you were in a car accident, you were ill, a family member was ill and you had to care for them,” said Francisco Valines, director of financial aid at the University. “You can always appeal and say ‘these are the circumstances; this is why I couldn’t do it’. Based on that, we would be able to say ‘we understand you couldn’t do it,’ in which case you would be given another opportunity and aid for the coming semester.”
Starting summer 2012, students who do not meet the 67 percent will have two choices: they can make it up by paying out of their own pocket or appeal if they had circumstances outside their control that explain why they were unable to complete the 67 percent.
“We have about 1,500 to 1,700 students who don’t make progress because they don’t pass the 67 percent. About half of them either appeal or make it up in the summer and get their aid in the fall,” said Valines.
According to Valines, valid reasons are recognized.
“It’s going to affect me; I live in Homestead and I use financial aid to get to campus and for food,” said Rogelio Ludenas, a junior majoring in biology. “Students will have to pay out of their own pockets and this change will cause students to not take summer classes.”
Claudia Sifontes, freshman psychology major, who found out about the changes online, said, “I am still going to do summer using loans; I will do whatever it takes. I know for some students it will be harder.”
One of the new things students are asked to do is submit their plan for success, along with an academic plan and their appeal to explaining what happened.
“We can’t just approve them and let them do whatever they want to do. Student need to be working towards their goal and be successful,” said Valines.
The degree audit, found on my.fiu.edu, will help students keep themselves on track.
When asked what the purpose is for changing the rule, Valines said, “[The Federal government and the Department of Education] frame it around program integrity; [they] tighten program integrity and make sure that federal aid dollars, our tax dollars because that is where it comes from, are being used in the best way possible.”
“I think that’s what they would say to ensure that we’re giving financial aid to students who are going to graduate and be successful because that’s what it’s about,” he added.
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