Megan Heslop spent her first few weeks at Ohio University this fall wondering when she would come up with $1,000 to pay rent, sorority dues and her housing deposit for next year.
Heslop, a junior studying communication sciences and disorders, experienced delays in receiving her fall financial aid because of the university’s switch from a Student Information System, created by Inform in 1999, to a new system called PeopleSoft that cost the university $1.4 million.
She was one of about 1,500 students who had a delay in either their summer or fall financial aid.
“It’s stuff I have to stress about, and I feel like it should have been taken care of a long time ago,” Heslop said.
Disbursements of federal Parent PLUS and private loans were late, and the university offered interest-free, short-term loans to cover the delayed loan money.
The loan disbursements were delayed because bank information had to be manually entered and checked into a computer, a process that was previously automated on the old SIS system.
“By the time school started, we had those loans flowing. … It’s like connecting a water pipe,” said Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management. “For anything in the future, I don’t anticipate delays.”
Cornell added that there shouldn’t be delays in Winter Quarter loan disbursements.
Heslop was not able to pay her rent this fall and said she needed to borrow money from her boyfriend to cover her expenses.
She appealed for additional aid and said she was given a temporary loan and was also approved for her long-term loan. However, she is still waiting for her aid to be disbursed and said she was not told when to expect the money.
“I have never encountered a student or parent with unreasonable demands. … It’s been exceedingly frustrating on all ends,” said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis. “I know students and parents are losing sleep on it. I know that staff are losing sleep on it too.”
The university did not provide a final date on which all loans would be disbursed or the total amount of financial aid that was delayed.
“Students apply and complete various requirements throughout the quarter and academic year; the disbursement process is continual,” Valerie Miller, director of student financial aid and scholarships, said in an email. “This is not unique to this year nor to the transition to PeopleSoft.”
The bursar’s policy is to add a 1.5 percent late fee to accounts that have not been paid by September 21, but students who were affected by university delays will not be charged.
“For situations where a late fee may have been applied, we will waive the fee,” Miller said.
A change in federal loan application procedure also contributed to the delays.
Students can now apply for Parent PLUS loans online, which also contributed to the delay, said Shelley Ruff, program director of the Rufus Initiative, a $19 million upgrade in the university’s technological infrastructure.
“It wasn’t everything we thought it was,” Ruff said. “As a result, the financial aid office will be putting in a request for automation next spring
.”
Plans for a new system were formed in 2004 after OIT was notified by the old SIS provider, Inform, that service would soon no longer be provided.
“The company essentially went out of business, and we had to switch,” Ruff said. “It became obsolete.”
In 2005, OIT looked for a replacement system. After looking at other information systems — such as SunGard and Datatel — PeopleSoft became the clear choice, Ruff said.
The switch began in 2009 and is still underway through various departments as part of the Rufus Initiative.
“We knew we were near the end but … we didn’t have a specific date picked out,” Ruff added. “We were one of the last universities in the country to stay on the (Inform) system.”
Costs associated with the $19 million initiative included PeopleSoft; enterprise reporting; identity management; the My OHIO portal; constituent relationship-management software for Admissions; conversion of OU’s old SIS data into PeopleSoft; and multiple integrations between existing systems, said Sean O’Malley, IT Communications Manager.
PeopleSoft will be used campuswide and will manage all departments’ information.
“It has been a very difficult summer for students, for their families and the folks that have been working so hard,” Watts said.
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