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The Red & Black created hysteria on campus Monday. For the sake of my scholarships and yours, it was well worth the ink, newsprint, dozens of e-mails and phone calls.The Office of Financial Aid sent an e-mail Nov. 20 as Red & Black staff headed home for the holidays, as did many other students and University staff. The vaguely written message stated that its recipients “must now reapply for the HOPE Scholarship using the new electronic application called the GSFAPPS” before today, lest they have to repay scholarship money from the Fall and Spring semesters.The University closed its offices Nov. 21, making it impossible for our reporters and editors to speak with a financial aid official about the application before we resumed publishing on Monday. We left voice mails and sent e-mails to officials in the office. None of which were returned.The message sent with such short notification severely limited the amount of information we were able to retrieve. We did not know exactly how many students received the e-mail, much less how many students understood its importance. We didn’t have all the information, but we published Monday what we did know so that students would have a better warning and time to respond.Susan D. Little, director of the Office of Student Financial Aid, wrote in an e-mail to me Monday afternoon that the e-mail was sent Nov. 20 to about 6,000 of the more than 18,000 HOPE Scholarship recipients at the University.I stand behind our decision made to publish the story in Monday’s edition. Had we not written the story, students may have been equally as irate Wednesday as they are now. Had we failed to report on such a critical financial matter, they may have questioned our commitment to quality journalism and our dedication to inform our readers.The Office of Financial Aid received more than 700 phone calls Monday from students and parents inquiring about the HOPE Scholarship.The flood of inquiries caused by our front page article also caused the Office of Financial Aid to extend the deadline to submit applications to Dec. 3.Perhaps next time such an occasion arises the Office of Financial Aid will not wait so late to inform students of a critical matter. Meanwhile, students should appreciate our attempt to assist them in funding their educations.Did we really inconvenience you students by informing you of the potential change in your scholarship status? My guess is that we saved some University students from missing the original Nov. 27 deadline and from having to repay thousands of dollars.Read more in Tuesday’s edition of The Red & Black.— Juanita Cousins, editor@randb.com
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