Pass flu up the
Use a paper towel to turn on the faucet.
Wet your hands with clean running water, hot or cold, and apply soap.
Rub your hands together to make a lather and scrub well. Be sure to scrub the backs of your
Continue to rub your hands for at least 20 seconds and then rinse well and dry with a clean towel or air dry.
Use a towel to turn the faucet off.
With these easy handwashing tips, you can avoid the spread of infection and illness When should you wash your hands? preparing
food
using the toilet changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing touching an animal, feed or waste touching garbage
eating food caring for someone who is sick treating a cut or wound
Photos by Sonia Garza / THE FLARE
TURN TO PAGE 3 FOR MORE INFORMATION ON FLU PREVENTION
The Flare
Friday, October 18, 2013 Vol. 77 No. 6 Serving Kilgore College since 1936
Scare your
axe off M
ake your Halloween the spookiest, scariest and most frightening of them all. Join the crowd and pile in to the most haunted East Texas locations. Attractions range from mildly spooky for the easily scared, to screaming your head off in fear for the hard to frighten. Be careful where you look, because you never know where you might see the next frightful attraction. SEE PAGE 8
Shelby Ragland / THE FLARE
Students reap $6.73 million in aid refunds MAEGAN MITCHELL Senior Writer Approximately $6.73 million was given back to KC students this semester because of excess aid, loan disbursements per federal guidelines as well as refunds of all scholarships, grants and loans. Of that amount, about $312,000 was returned to students via check. The other approximately $6.42 million was direct deposited to students’ Ranger cards, or to previously designated accounts. Both the financial aid office and the business office agree that this semester’s refund process was less complicated than previous semesters.
“I think Herring Bank has also improved their services as well when the students have to call them for any reason,” Jane Hood, cashier supervisor, said. Students who are considered first-time loan borrowers and are in accelerated courses, are the only students who have not received their refunds at this time. Annette Morgan, financial aid director, said due to federal regulations, classes that started later, like the accelerated courses, have to wait 30 days into the semester before loans can be processed and put toward their accounts. Hood said that on Oct. 18 the first-time loan borrowers that are fall-only students will receive the second half of their loan
amounts. Many students applied for and received federal student loan funds and the business office still has checks for students who received money back. “These funds to help students pay educational expenses are expected to be paid back,” Morgan said. “Loans can open the door to a student receiving a college degree, but they can also close the door.” Morgan stressed the importance of understanding the “dangers of being involved in the loan program.” If a student who has gotten a loan chooses to ignore that those funds are to be repaid, leaves, withdraws or graduates from school and does not begin the repayment process
to the point the loan goes into default, that student is ineligible to return to school or get any more financial aid of any kind. The student will also be unable to retrieve their transcript. “Students don’t think of this in terms of what is going to happen in years to come, but it is very, very real,” Morgan said. Students who plan to transfer to a university are advised to wait to apply for federal loans if they do not need the money right now. “The four-year schools are three times as expensive as Kilgore College. If it is imperative for them to have the loans then See REFUND on Page 3