Tag: work study

Work-study qualified

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By Daniel Johnson, Investigative Reporter

Students can go through the MyCNM website and access the financial aid page to locate the information needed to start the process of a loan, federal or state funded aid, or to qualify for work-study posi­tions within the school, said Lee Carrillo, Senior Director of Financial Aid, Scholarships and Veteran Services.

All students need to fill out the FASFA form to qualify for financial aid, he said, but once the FASFA form is filed elec­tronically it will be submitted and reviewed by the financial aid department.

And once reviewed a stu­dent will be informed of what they qualify for, he said.

“Almost anyone who comes into the school can qualify for loans, aid, or some form of work-study,” Carrillo said.

There are currently two different types of financial aid assistance, he said.

The first is need based he said, which allows a student that qualifies the opportunity to collect assistance from state and federal funds, as well as becoming work-study qualified.

The second is no need work-study, which means that a student that may not qualify for assistance but they could still qualify to work on campus as a student work-study, he said.

“Most no need work-stud­ies can still receive loans as well as working for a paycheck,” he said.

Work-study allows stu­dents an opportunity to get a job at one of the seven CNM campuses, he said.

A work-study employee can work up to twenty hours a week and earn from $8.50 to $9.50 an hour, he said.

The rate of pay all depends on what the job duties are and what position a student would be in at the current job, he said.

“There are few jobs that pay $9.50 an hour but they do exist,” Carrillo said.

If a student is work-study qualified they will again need to access the MyCNM page to look for work-study jobs, he said.

Some paper work will need to be filled out in the financial aid office at main campus if a student is hired as work-study, he said.

If a student is under the age of 24, then they will need their parents tax information as well as their own, if they are over 24 and had a job in the past they will need their own tax information, he said.

“Most of the filing process can be done on-line but if a student ever has any questions they can feel free to visit us in the financial aid office with any questions they may have,” Carrillo said.

Everybody that comes to CNM has a financial advisor available to them he said and they are always willing to help students that need it as well.

At this point in the year it is essential that a student sub­mits their paperwork as quick as possible to get qualified because as of right now it is late in the season, he said.

“If a student wants to get it going they should start now and come in to get on the right path to succeed,” Carillo, said.

For more information on what is offered to students via financial aid, go to cnm.edu/ depts/financial-aid or make an appointment with a financial aid advisor at 224-3090 .

Financial aid, a three-ring circus

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By the Chronicle Editorial Board

Getting through the FASFA process and attempting to get Financial Aid can be somewhat of a circus for some students.

What students have to understand is that the Financial Aid Department deals with close to 30,000 students, and many are having the same issues as you are right now.

So if you are having issues with Financial Aid and it is frustrat­ing the hell out of you, seek advice from other students in their experiences and dealings with the financial aid department and see how other students dealt with their issues, because chances are it is not as bad as it seems.

Sometimes it can just be a form missed during filing or information that was overlooked, and can be remedied with a quick appointment with a financial aid advisor.

Also, many students do not actually know that they can qual­ify for grants and scholarships without applying for student loans, and can even become work-study qualified without getting all that financial aid has to offer.

Right now there are more than 100 student work-study positions offered throughout all the seven CNM campuses, which offer an array of positions, including here at The CNM Chronicle.

Due to the firing freeze we are hiring for more than 10 positions in an assortment of positions, including staff reporter, ad sales, and distribu­tion (Please see our hiring ad on Page 2).

There are many opportunities to thrive here at CNM, and it may take some patience to get through the process, but there are many ways of acquiring funds here and the school knows we need those extra funds and will help students in getting them, you just have to know who will actually help.

So, to the people wondering if you qualify for financial aid or work-study, make an appointment with a Financial Aid Adviser at 224-3090.

Employment freeze affects work-study

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By Jonathan Baca, Copy Editor

CNM has initiated a hiring freeze for all work-study employment positions, and all departments will be unable to hire any new stu­dent employees until July 1, when the new fiscal year begins, said Lee Carrillo, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarship Services.

The hiring freeze should not affect any current work-study employees, but any departments who lose any employees will not be able to replace them, and will have to make do until they can hire new employees in July, Carrillo said.

“It all comes down to one thing; we have limited fund­ing,” Carrillo said.

The school currently hires about 300 to 350 work-study employees per year, he said.

One change that will affect current employees is that pay periods will not go up from 20 to 30 weekly hours this summer as it has in the past, because there are no extra funds this year, Carrillo said.

This increase had been done in summers past, because there had been a sur­plus at the end of those years, and the school is required to spend the entire allocation before the end of the fiscal year. If there is any money left over at the start of the new year, the amount of money the State and Federal governments give would likely be adjusted, and the school would receive less the next year, he said.

This is the second year in a row that a hiring freeze has had to be implemented in order to ensure that enough money was left to continue paying existing student employees, he said.

Although the school could cut student employ­ees’ hours in order to keep from running out of funds, Carrillo said that the school has looked at the affect this would have, and would only do this as a last option.

“We look at all those things, and we hope it doesn’t come to that, which I don’t think it will,” Carrillo said.

The funds that go toward paychecks for all work-study employees come from a collective fund from Federal and State allocations, and from CNM itself, he said.

Director of Marketing and Communications, Brad Moore said that $600,000 comes from the Federal government, $1.2 million is given by the State, and the school kicks in an addi­tional $650,000, which is more than the 25 percent the school is required by law to contribute.

“We want to be able to hire and employ as many work-study students as pos­sible. The administration feels it is important for stu­dents to get an opportunity to have employment here, so the decision is made to add money to that fund,” Moore said.

At the start of each fiscal year, the school must esti­mate how many work-study employees it can hire based on the amount of money in the fund, the number of hours in a typical pay period, and the hourly wage, Carrillo said.

Although it was not legally required of them, the school did raise the hourly wage to $8.50 when Albuquerque voters raised the city’s minimum wage at the start of 2013. The school then gave work-study employees an additional ten cent raise in January, Carrillo said.

Carrillo said that the recent increases have changed the math significantly and con­tributed to the recent freezes, but that the school is still dedi­cated to hiring as many stu­dent employees as it can.

“Once we hit that pla­teau, we’ve got to freeze. And everybody who has a job can keep that job, but we just have to make sure that we make it to the end of the funding year with the allocations we have,” Carrillo said.

Carrillo said that budget­ing for the work-study fund can become a delicate balanc­ing act, since some employees work less than others, some quit or are fired, and some vacant positions stay open for long periods of time.

The Financial Aid depart­ment has to keep a constant eye on these ever-changing factors in an attempt to pre­dict how much money will be needed to last the entire year. This hiring freeze is the final tool in the toolbox that ensures the money will not run out, Carrillo said.

Moore said that the work-study program is very important to the school and to the employees them­selves, because the work they do is valuable to so many departments, and because the students get experience and important references for their future.

“It’s great to have stu­dent employees in the work environment because it helps keep us in tune with students and how their day to day lives really are. It’s highly valuable for regular CNM employees to have work-study employees around, to stay in touch with student life,” Moore said.

With talk in Washington about the possibility of raising the Federal minimum wage to $10 an hour or more, Carrillo said that the school would most likely be forced to hire significantly less work-study employees if the raise were to pass, unless they could secure more funding.

 

CNM to reduce loans, increase work-study

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By Daniel Montaño, Staff Reporter

Editor’s note: It is important to note that everyone’s financial aid situation is different on a case-by-case basis. Students should call 224- 3090 to schedule an appointment with a finan­cial advisor to discuss any financial aid concerns.

Starting in the fall 2013 semester, Financial Aid is restrict­ing access to loans and increasing the award for work-study stu­dents, said Joseph Ryan, associate director of Financial Aid.

Due to an increase in defaulted student loans, Ryan said that CNM will only be offering student loans to sophomore students with 30 or more cred­its, and the only loans offered will be subsi­dized, which are loans that don’t accrue inter­est until after the stu­dent has finished school. Unsubsidized loans that begin accruing interest immediately will not be offered to any students at all, he said. That does not mean, however, that loans will not be avail­able to students.

If students wish to receive loans but does not see any offered on myCNM, students will then have to sched­ule an appointment to meet with a financial aid advisor in order to have loans granted to them, he said.

“We’re just trying to educate our students more about what student loans are, and trying to help them see that there are other things they could be doing that could help them cover their expenses without taking a student loan,” he said.

CNM is also reduc­ing the amount of unsubsidized loans stu­dents can take out— by $2000 in most cases, Ryan said.

Students taking developmental courses or lower level college prep courses will not be eligible for any unsub­sidized student loans whatsoever, unless they are enrolled in a coordinated entry pro­gram, such as Nursing or Diagnostic Medical Stenography, Ryan said.

The changes to unsubsidized loans

come by way of a fed­eral student aid program CNM is participating in and are being put in place to reduce defaulted stu­dent loans, he said.

“CNM is going to be taking part in the Department of Education’s Experimental Site Initiative. They allow schools who take part to modify how they partici­pate in federal financial aid. CNM is taking part in an experiment that deals with ‘over-borrow­ing’,” Ryan said.

While access to loans has been restricted, the award for work-study has gone up from $7500 to $9000 per year, Ryan said.

The increase in the work-study award was approved in order to cover a raise given to work-study employees in the spring 2013 semester, which Ryan said had led to problems with some work-study employees.

After the raise went into effect, some employ­ees actually surpassed the $7500 allotted to them, and were either unable to work for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends July 1, or were forced to forgo some or all of their loans in order to continue work, he said.

“It shouldn’t happen next year, we’re taking a ballpark estimate with the $9000 and we built in a buffer which should get us through, but we’ll look at it closer to the summer (2014) term and see where we’re at with all of our students,” he said.

Because the award for work-study has gone up, Ryan said that some work-study students might not be able to take out the full amount of loans that have been awarded to them.

Students will have to look at their ‘award over­view’ section in the finan­cial aid tab on myCNM and pay close attention to the amount listed under ‘initial need,’ he said.

If the amount listed minus the total of loans and grants accepted by the student is less than $9000, Ryan said that the student might not qualify for a full work-study award.

“What happens a lot of times with work-study and student loans is that they kind of counteract each other, so if you want work-study you have to take less in loans, and if you want higher loans than you might not be eli­gible for work-study. It’s hard to get both at the same time,” Ryan said.

Students do have, and have always had, the option to take out a lower amount in stu­dent loans in order to qualify for a full work-study award, he said.

Students also have the option of taking a reduced work-study award, which would translate to lower hours worked per pay-period and thus less money per paycheck, but Ryan said that students should focus on working more so they can avoid paying back loans and interest.

“I would always encourage students to take less student loans and more work-study because that way you’re working and earning money as opposed to borrowing money with interest that you would have to pay back with the loan. So I think that’s always the smarter bet to make,” he said.

The change in how student loans are handled is coming as a response to the amount of student loans issued at CNM that have gone into default, that has jumped from around 13 percent in recent years to “the mid 20s” in the past year, Ryan said.

There is a penalty for any school that has a high default rate for multiple years, including institu­tional suspension that would cause the school in question to lose federal funding, and Ryan said that CNM is trying to avoid any penalties before they happen but that CNM will always support its students in need.

“The Department of Education has made it clear that we cannot deny a student a loan. If they want a loan we will give it to them if they have eligi­bility for it,” he said.

For more information, or to schedule an appoint­ment with a financial aid advisor, call 224-3090.

2013 to 2014 Financial
Aid changes:

Subsidized loans only offered to sophomores or higher
Unsubsidized loans not offered at all Eligible students not offered loans
must speak to an advisor to get loans

Students taking college prep courses not eligible for unsubsidized loans

Maximum unsubsidized loans reduced by $2000 per year

Work-study award increased
by $1500 a year