Financial aid staffers help college dreams come true

Ever wonder what keeps UD running smoothly? Up Close & Personnel profiles the employees who keep UD ticking around the clock throughout the year. This week, the focus is on the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

Johnie Burton, director

4:28 p.m., July 19, 2005--When the people Johnie Burton meets at parties learn that he’s UD’s director of financial aid, they ply him with questions.

Parents want to tap Burton’s expertise, gleaned from 22 years in UD’s Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. He said he doesn’t mind.

“Anytime I can do anything to help a student attend college, I’m glad,” he said.

He said he knows the financial pressure on families from firsthand experience.

Meg McClay, records analyst/coordinator

“Financial aid and scholarships were absolutely necessary or I couldn’t have gone to college,’’ he said. “So, I know that it’s important to help families that may not have all the means with financial aid and to reward students who are academically gifted with scholarships.’’

Sixty percent of UD students receive scholarships or financial aid, so the 23 employees in the financial aid office are busy year-round.

Burton and Georgia Boines, senior assistant director, said they often find themselves counseling the sons and daughters of graduates they counseled decades ago.

“My favorite thing is certainly the people contact,’’ Boines said. “We deal with regulations, which aren’t so much fun, but we do see the people side and we feel that we are helping students attend the University who might otherwise not be able to attend.’’

“It’s exciting to see people finish,’’ Burton said. “It hasn’t worn out after all these years.”

The University awarded $107 million in scholarships and financial aid this year, he said. Merit scholarships range from $1,000 nonrenewable awards to the Eugene du Pont Memorial Distinguished Scholar Awards of full tuition, room, board and books for four years.

“This is an exciting place to work because funding for scholarships has increased tremendously since [President David] Roselle has been here. He calls it focused vision implementation. That’s the plan here to attract a talented and diverse student body,’’ Burton said.

Judy Feaganes (left), records analyst/coordinator, Annetrea Puckham (standing), records specialist, and Stephanie Greene, records technician

“Since 1990, financial aid at the University of Delaware has quadrupled,” according to Michael Middaugh, assistant vice president for institutional research and planning. “That increase is far greater than the rate of increase in tuition and fees.”

Financial aid officers help to shape each class by offering money to students who meet certain criteria--including high grades, rigorous high school courses, excellent writing skills, an undersubscribed major, a special talent and competitive SAT scores.

Burton said one-third of UD’s offers of admission are eventually accepted, but 500-600 families called or wrote to his office this year asking for more scholarship money or more financial aid.

James Davis, assistant director, and Diane Keen, records specialist

"Typically, for a Delawarean, we are able to make it happen," he said. "Where it’s really a big issue is the needy families who are from other states."

He said families sometimes consider UD’s financial package smaller than other colleges they are considering--until they do the math.

“Parents of students will write and say, ‘You didn’t give us as large a scholarship as this other place,’ but I point out that we don’t cost as much. They say, ‘Oh, you’re right.’”

Financial aid staffers are available at the Student Services Building and in Hullihen Hall.

Jim Holloway (left), associate director, and Reynaldo Blanco, financial aid officer

Meg McClay, a records analyst for 19 years, is the first person you see when you walk into the financial aid office. McClay said electronic funds transfers have zapped the long lines of financial aid offices in the past. Many scholarships and aid programs are posted via computer now, and online loan counseling is commonplace.

When things do get rushed, Donna Higgins, a financial aid coordinator, said the staff handles the pressure of funds transfers and student counseling with aplomb. “Everybody cooperates. When the pressure is on, we just laugh and make it fun,’’ she said.

Gail Kracyla (standing), records specialist, and Toni Greene, work-study coordinator

Camille Alleng and Diane Venninger work in the processing area of Hullihen, where they explain loans to students and their parents. “At the end of the day, if I’m able to make a complicated financial aid process easier to understand for first-time borrowers, then it definitely has been worthwhile,’’ Alleng said.

Reynaldo Blanco, a financial aid counselor who attended UD on a scholarship himself, said the counselors get attached to certain students. “You build trust,’’ he said. “They know they can come to you.”

Eileen “Cookie” Burget, records specialist

Blanco has received thank-you cards from students, and a June grad knitted him a scarf.

Toni Greene, the department’s work-study coordinator, places 640 students in campus jobs annually. Most of them are clerical spots, but she’s hired poultry farm workers, car washers and art department models.

James A. Davis, a long-time banker before he became a financial aid counselor three years ago, deals with financial aid appeals.

Usually, he said, the expected family contribution the government financial aid processors come up with is the last word, but, sometimes, counselors can help families whose financial snapshot is skewed by medical bills, divorce, a death in the family or a job change.

Peter Malinowski, assistant director

Article by Kathy Canavan
Photos by Kathy F. Atkinson and Sarah Simon, AS '06

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