Volume 67, No. 27
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New system promises student access, ease of coursework planning By Roxann Garcia The Pan American Despite the current budget woes circulating the University and the Lone Star State, administrators on campus continue to push creative means of making college easier for students. In his first year here, Registrar Jeffrey Rhodes, among other collaborators such as the University’s Student and Academic Divisions, is anticipating the arrival of new software, DegreeWorks. Still in its infancy, the degree audit system will be replacing the current system, Curriculum Advising and Program Planning, or CAPP. The program allows students to instantly get a look at where courses fit into a degree plan, including courses they’ve taken, are taking, would like to, or need to take. It has more functionality than CAPP and it’s more user-friendly, Rhodes said. The intent is to provide up-to-date information for students so that they stay on track to graduate within four years. the software is done by SunGard Higher Education for close to $300,000;
this is the same company that built the student information system currently in use at UTPA, as well as ASSIST. “DegreeWorks is right from the same company,” Rhodes said. “So it goes right alongside what we currently use.” The software also makes room for ‘what if’ scenarios. “Students will be able to access this through the web, so say a student is registering at two in the morning, like most do,” Rhodes joked. “If they have a question and they try calling their adviser at two in the morning, obviously they’re not going to answer. This way they’ll have help.” The program allows advisers to look ahead and build planners for students. The idea is to predict the need for various courses. This semester’s advising period began March 21 and wrapped up April 28. “Say we have 300 students that need a particular management course or a biology course for fall 2012, this allows us to get a more accurate picture of the demand for specific courses,” he said. When building schedules, administrators typically use trend data from the past, but now they will be able
to look at future demands, and make better use of funds used to create classes, the registrar said. “Our goal is to go live December 1 to use for advising during the spring semester,” Rhodes said. There is also additional functionality to the software. Alongside the degree planning aspect is the ability to view financial aid status. This includes eligibility or adherence to requirements. Also enveloped in the program is an NCAA functionality that allows advisers to determine and better track the eligibility of student-athletes. “Now those functionality portions will be implemented after the degree plans,” the registrar said. “Those are future steps.” The Information Technology department on campus is also part of the collaboration and implementation process, while working on easy accessibility for the software. “We are looking at the possibility of a direct connection from MyUTPA tab at the UTPA website,” Rhodes said. UTPA President Robert Nelsen
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Allows administrators to get a more accurate picture of the demand for specific courses needed by students.
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What DegreeWorks does:
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is Adv ers Allows advisers to look ahead and build course paths for students in their degree plan online.
was t h e initial reason for the software transfer, according to Rhodes. “It is my understanding that he had some experience with the program at another institution and saw all of the good things it can do,” he said. Rhodes, who is a Texas Tech graduate,
Allows students to instantly lay out courses in their degree plan online, including past, present and future classes.
can attest to many scenarios where he was sitting across from students calculating by hand the required and accumulated hours needed to graduate. “This product allows students to do that at two o’clock in the morning,” he concluded.
Pell Grant uncertainty keeps students guessing Funds up in the air due to pending Congressional budget decision
By Roxann Garcia The Pan American As the U.S. economy remains uncertain, one issue that will remain constant for students is figuring out how to pay for a college education. The Federal Pell Grant, which is commonly offered to UTPA students, is one type of grant t h a t helps students
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trim down tuition costs during the fall, spring and summer semesters. But this may not be the case for long. As of last month, Congress voted to do away with the availability of Pell Grant money in the summer. This means that legislation passed in 2009-2010, establishing a Second Pell Award effective at UTPA beginning in the summer of 2010, would no longer be able to offer students that money for summer classes. “The Pell Grant is one of the financial aid programs that may be affected by legislative action,” Garcia said. “Currently
the U.S. House of Representatives is proposing a reduction to Pell Grants. Whether there are any reductions to Pell Grants depends on the budget resolution worked out between the Senate and the House of Representatives.” A final decision on whether Congress will reinsert funding for programs, like the summer Pell grant, will likely be determined during budget talks for 2012. According to the Student Financial Services webpage, eligibility for receiving the award is determined by the Department of Education on the basis of each student’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which can be filled out at www.fafsa.gov, and helps determine a student’s Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) to tuition.
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in 2007, $16,428,110,000 in 2008, $25,328,889,000 in 2009 and $32,295,226,000 in 2010. With the state of the Pell Grant still unknown, Garcia is concerned about what will be decided. Should a decision to reduce Pell funding succeed, it would mark the first negative effect to Pell grant that Garcia has seen in her working experience at UTPA. According to Student Financial Service, the 2010-2011 Pell award has provided a maximum monetary yield of $5,500. Eligibility factors like a student’s financial need or EFC, cost to attend school, status as a full-time or part-time student, and whether a student will attend school for a full academic year or less, are considered before grant money can be awarded.
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“Since the Pell Grant award varies for students with different EFCs and it prorates based on enrollment, then how much the Pell Grant will cover of tuition and fees, depends on that student’s EFC and their enrollment for the period,” Garcia said. Federal Pell Grant is allocated differently each year depending on annual program funding. The availability of annual funds is also the reason for varying Pell awards for students on a year to year basis. In the recent past, the differences in awards for students have been advantageous, as funds for Pell have almost always increased with each passing year. As reported by the U.S. Department of Education webpage, past budgets for Pell Grant have provided available aid for students totaling $13,989,305,000
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Look for it May 18.
speaks to students