The Office of Student Financial Aid supports student success through service, outreach and technology by providing assistance in an effective and timely manner.

Vision Statement

The Office of Student Financial Aid at Texas Tech University will:

GOALS, CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS, and OBJECTIVES (including Strategies and Assessments)

Assessments:

• Measurable increase in the amount of jobs created and filled by the part time employment and federal work study department.
• Decrease in wait time to see a financial aid advisor and a decrease in the number of people involved to correctly guide a student through the financial aid process
• Increase the number of self help stations from 3 to 12.

Objective2.1:  Decrease average wait time for phone and in person assistance by 25%.

• Increase number of staff available to take phone calls through effective scheduling
• Anticipate heavy traffic or peek times through monitoring phone system and historical data.

Assessments:

 Monitor phone system for the following variables:

• Number of staff available
• Average wait time
• Individual employee call log

Monthly review of historical data and university calendar.

Objective 3.1: Deliver Financial Aid information via publications, mail outs, emails and other available resources to students, parents and staff.

Strategies:

• Maintain a record/timeline of all communications from the Financial Aid office to parents and students.
• Examine yearly all publications for accuracy of information, necessity of said publication and if it reaches the correct population.
• Research, develop and utilize publications for each population that we want to reach.
• Continue to work with Admissions to co-ordinate information going out to newly admitted students including emails and written publications.

• Communications from Student Financial Aid are now targeted to both the group and information contained in the correspondence based upon data mining techniques

• TTU Financial Aid handbook has been created and is a useful aid to students and parents as they go through the financial aid process

Critical Success Factors: 

• Significant reduction in the amount of time to process financial aid applications
• Reduce number of errors or corrections required in administering Federal, State, and other grant programs

Objective 4.1:  Decrease the amount of time needed to apply TEXAS Grant funds to student accounts by an increase in staff and leveraging training.

Strategies:

• Hire and train FTE to administer and train staff on TEXAS Grant awards
• Receive additional training through Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to remain informed on new and current processes

• Reduce the time required to determine eligible recipients and award funding to students

 Assessments:

• As of October 1, 2004, a FTE was hired and began training
• TEXAS Grant advisor has attended three THECB sponsored training programs
• Awards for 2005-2006 began two months earlier than in 2004-2005 with 76% of all awards completed 90 days ahead of prior award year

Scholarship: Provide more efficient scholarship administration through the use of online tools.

Objectives 5.1 Deliver access to the Employee/Dependent Scholarship Application via eRaider.

 Strategies:

• Create 24x7 access to the scholarship application
• Receive all applications via online submission
• Electronically post submitted applications on Techsis tracking screen to allow students to confirm application  receipt through online status checks
• Eliminate questions regarding application submission, receipt dates, employee identity, and correspondence hours participation
• Electronically control application deadlines
• Increase accuracy in application processing
• Decrease processing time for the scholarship office
• Allow for faster awarding to students

Assessments:

• Review process after fall 05 award cycle
• Customer review and feedback