Financial Aid

By Betsy Curry
As the new school year begins, students are paying out a lot of money for tuition, books and school supplies. Many students at West Virginia University at Parkersburg breathe a sigh of relief when their financial aid arrives.

Thanks to August Kafer, director of Financial Aid at WVUP, many are feeling a little more at ease this school year. More scholarship and Financial Aid letters have been sent out prior to the school year than any year before. Normally only six to seven thousand dollars have been received by students at this time, but this year the total has soared to 1.6 million. Kafer credits this large increase to his amazing staff. Not only did his staff have such an improvement but this year there were no computer problems. Last year 385 files were lost.

According to Kafer, his staff normally spends 12 weekends during the summer trying to get everything together. This summer no weekends were spent, and while a few people might have been upset when they arrived to school to see closed doors it all worked out and everyone should be thankful for such an improvement.

This marks the first year the Financial Aid department had waited until the second week of school to disperse money. It made for an easier transition back to school for Kafer and his staff. They were able to get more done the first week so when the second week came more aid was given to a larger number of students. The bookstore set up a type of credit for those receiving scholarships, grants, etc. so the students could still pay tuition and get books for the year.