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The Higher Educational Aids Board is imposing the waiting list for applicants starting Wednesday. The agency says it is running out of money for the Wisconsin Higher Education Grant program, which gives grants of up to $2,730 per year to thousands of students.
Board officials said they are starting the waiting list at the earliest point in the program’s history because they do not know when the state budget will be signed into law or how much lawmakers will give the program.
“We just cannot commit any further awards because we don’t want to give someone an award and then have to take it back,” said Sherrie Nelson, a policy adviser at the board. “We’re doing it just as a precautionary measure.”
The board has promised 22,400 prospective UW System students grants for the coming year, ranging from $674 to $2,730. Those commitments could eat up the program’s budget but the board had hoped to make at least 2,000 additional awards.
Students automatically apply for the program when they fill out their federal financial aid forms and awards are based on need.
UW System spokesman David Giroux said the uncertainty could deter low-income students from starting school at a time when the system of 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges is trying to increase its enrollment.
“These are students who need each and every piece of their financial aid package to make a go of it,” he said. “The concern is that a number of them will wait to see if their financial aid package comes together as planned because they simply can’t afford to come without it. While they are waiting, life may get in the way.”
Nelson said awards could be freed for those on the waiting list once the budget becomes law later this year depending on the level of funding. In previous years, students were accepted for awards until November and waiting lists were started then if funding had run out.
Randall McCready, director of student financial aid at UW-Parkside, a university of 4,900 in Kenosha with a relatively high percentage of minorities and low-income students, said up to 400 students there could lose awards. Awards on his campus averaged $1,900 last year, about one-third of tuition and fees.
“We’re going to have to inform them that we are hopeful the money will be coming but we can’t make a guarantee of it,” he said. “It could impact students’ decisions for coming to school, particularly with the population of students that we have at Parkside.”
Giroux said campuses across the state could see a similar impact. But a spokesman for a lawmaker called the warnings a political scare tactic.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Democrats who control the Senate have proposed spending $50 million during the year beginning July 1 on the program, up from $43 million the current year. That would be enough to accommodate the 24,500 students the board was hoping to award, the amount that received them in the recently ended school year.
But some Republicans who control the Assembly want to trim the request, perhaps to as low as $39 million. Because Doyle used a creative veto in the last budget to increase the program’s funding, its budget will be reduced to $39 million starting July 1 until lawmakers pass a new budget.
That could take several months because of differences between Republicans who control the Assembly and Democrats who lead the Senate.
The program is also open to students attending technical colleges but only UW students are affected by the waiting list.
Lilia Williams, executive director of United Council of UW Students, which advocates for the system’s 160,000 students, said students should still apply for the aid but she called the uncertainty troublesome.
“Unfortunately what this means for a lot of students is they are going to have to take out more loans, which will mean more debt,” she said. “The WHEG program is vital to low-income students.”
Mike Mikalsen, spokesman for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, chairman of the Colleges and Universities committee, said agencies were wise to have contingency plans in place but called the warnings a scare tactic.
“If we gave them $10 billion more tomorrow, they would still be screaming and yelling they didn’t get enough,” he said. “Everybody needs to take a chill pill. The process is continuing.”
