Student Financial Services has been able to respond to financial difficulties faced by students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic through scholarships and distributing federal coronavirus relief funds.
Greg Bruner, Financial Aid Director, oversees scholarships, grant processing, loan processing, institutional policies, and “everything to do with student financial aid on campus.”
Although Olivet faced some financial difficulties because of the pandemic, “We haven’t changed any of our scholarships or policies or procedures or any of that,” said Bruner.
The decrease in admissions has been a factor in Olivet’s financial struggles as well. This past fall displayed a little under 500 less applicants than there were for the fall of 2019.
| Enrollment Year | Applications as of April 8th | Applications as of July 15th |
| 2021 (this upcoming year) | 4822 | TBD |
| 2020 | 4554 | 4680 |
| 2019 | 4852 | 5136 |
Bruner explained how Olivet has been able to change their response to students’ financial situations.
“The government gives us the ability to recalculate someone’s FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] based on real numbers,” he said.
Instead of looking at 2019 taxes, Olivet has “the authority by law to get the documents and re-adjust their FAFSA to say, ‘this is what their real income looks like because of COVID’.”
According to Eric Kelderman in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Congress also passed a new bill regarding FAFSA in December which “contains a new requirement to simplify the application process for federal student aid.”
Along with re-adjusting students’ FAFSA, the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) “have certainly helped the school both recoup costs for the school and for all the COVID expenses, but also to provide emergency funds to the students and that’s been great.”
Bruner said that the impact of students receiving HEERF funding has been huge.
I’ve seen many students use it to finish paying off that bill, or to pay off their bill so they can walk and graduate, all those kinds of things. And some students needed cash in their hands to pay today’s bill that they can keep their phone on until the year’s over,” Bruner said.
According to U.S. News, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020 “allocated $22.7 billion to the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund II, known as HEERF II.”
Olivet has been able to calculate how much a student may receive from this funding partly based on whether a student is a Pell recipient. According to Olivet’s website, Federal Pell Grants “are provided by the U.S. Department of Education to all students who qualify on the basis of need.” The FAFSA is used to determine eligibility.
Jason Johnson, Director of Finance for Olivet, explained the distribution process of the second round of stimulus funds.
“What the university did is we had a committee, both from the Accounting and Finance office as well as from the Student Financial Service office,” he said. “And using certain factors and metrics we created a system where students could apply for the funds if they had financial hardships.” Based on the system they created, they calculated the need per student and awarded accordingly.
Funds were also set aside for students with exceptional need.
“Some of those cases could have been high medical expenses, a family member lost a job, the student could have lost a job, something that could have impacted the student in a greater impact than maybe your typical student,” Johnson said.
After receiving over approximately 1,000 applications for those funds, the Student Financial Services team reviewed every application and awarded based on their criteria. The application window was open for two weeks, and the Student Financial Services team was able to review them in about a week and a half.
“They did a really fantastic job,” Johnson said.
A new round of stimulus money from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA), passed earlier this year by the new administration, will most likely be distributed this coming fall. Students will be able to apply for the funds the same way they did for the previous round of funds.
Students who are still experiencing financial hardships can apply again for funds set aside from HEERF II by contacting the Student Financial Services office.
To offset financial struggles, students may also apply for Student Employment.
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