Skip to Local Navigation
Skip to Content
California State University, Long Beach
Skip links

Faculty and Staff Reference

Overview of Fall 2011 Scholarship Program Changes

Background

In July of 2010, the campus launched a multi-year project to re-engineer the campus scholarship process.  The Vice President for Administration and Finance called for the University to refocus efforts to improve service to students, ensure compliance with federal and state regulations, improve donor and community relations, and minimize duplication of effort on the campus.

The first phase was implemented for Fall 2010 and included:

  • Ensuring timely financial aid coordination for the student so that payments are accurate and in compliance with federal and state financial aid and tax regulations.
  • Gathering information about all sources of awards and building a consolidated database that will be the foundation for future automation to assist departments and students.
  • Clarification of Student Payment types and the resulting financial aid and tax implications.
  • Implementation of new forms and processes in support of the project.

Changes for Fall 2011

Building upon the efforts of this first phase of the scholarship re-engineering project, the second phase focuses on automating the disbursements of scholarships, the creation of departmental reports, and the continued effort to insure University scholarships are administered in compliance with regulations and policies.

Changes to the Scholarship Administration process for the 2011-2012 academic year will include:

  • Implementation of an annual review process of scholarship profile information

    As part of CSULB’s responsibility for administering scholarships and other awards to students, an annual review of Scholarship/Educational Award Profile information is required to ensure the Office of Financial Aid has the most current information on all scholarship/educational awards and to reaffirm delegation of authority for award and payment administration.

    It is very important that all awards are set-up accurately in the student system and that information on delegation of authority is current. This is necessary because control steps previously performed by Accounts Payable in the Foundation will now be done by the Office of Financial Aid. For information on how this information is collected, please review the Procedure Annual Review of Scholarship Profile Information.

    Annual review packets were sent to each award administrator in late May and are due to the Office of Financial Aid no later than July 1.  Student Award payments for the new academic year cannot be processed until the annual review is complete for the award.

  • Implementation of a new payment process disbursing all awards via the Student System

    The process used by departments to request award payments will remain largely unchanged as award payment forms will continue to be submitted to the Financial Aid Office for processing.  However, the method of delivery to the student will now be performed via the Student System beginning Fall 2011.  This will allow:

    • Increased visibility of scholarships as the specific award will appear on the student’s financial aid award and student account.
    • Automatic payment of student charges, including issuing a deferment for charges so the student will not have to prepay their fees while waiting for the award to be disbursed.
    • Disbursement of awards that are in excess of university charges directly into the student’s bank account via secure electronic funds transfer (E-Refund).
    • The creation of CSLink reports for departments to monitor their scholarships and recipients.

    For a detailed review of the new process, please see Overview of the new payment process via the student system. Wherever possible, recipients should be selected during the spring or summer prior to the academic year of the award and the award payment form submitted by August 1.

  • Implementation of a new suite of CSLink Reports on award recipients

    The new awarding and payment process will result in the availability of specific award information in the student system. As a result, CSLink reports will be made available to assist in award administration. Reports will show awarding, disbursement and enrollment information by student. The new reports are planned to be available by the beginning of the Fall semester. They will be available to authorized users via our secure reporting environment (CSLink).

  • Implementation of this new scholarship administration website

    This Scholarship website will be a resource center for campus individuals involved with administering scholarships and other educational awards. The website will be expanded over the coming year to respond to the information requests from the campus. You will see some of the future topics identified and listed as Coming soon!

  • Revised Scholarship/Educational Award Profile and Payment Forms

    The basic forms that the departments will use have not changed; however, they have been updated to match the new payment delivery process via the Student system. The Forms and detailed instructions for completion can be found on this Scholarship website.