Strickland snips student aid.

Students may face financial trouble this quarter and next year, as Governor Ted Strickland's budget cuts begin to affect Otterbein. Cuts are being made to the Ohio Student Choice Grant program. According to the Ohio Board of Regents' Web site, to balance the state's budget for the year, the Ohio Choice Grant has received a cut in funding. For the spring term of the '08-'09 academic year, the amount of aid will be reduced by $20 per student. Strickland has proposed to completely eliminate the Ohio Student Choice Grant program for the '09-'10 academic year. This means that in spring quarter, 2,176 Otterbein students who receive the grant will only be getting $200 instead of $220. The Ohio Choice Grant program, "provides financial assistance to full-time students enrolled for baccalaureate study in Ohio private non-profit colleges and uiversities," according to the Web site. The Ohio Choice Grant is not need-based. "The governor, in his plan, has eliminated private colleges from state funding," Director of Admission Cass Johnson said. "Monies will instead go to need-based assistance."

According to Johnson, the funding allotted for the Ohio Choice Grant program is being funneled into the Ohio College Opportunity Grant (OCOG). The OCOG, "provides need-based tuition assistance to Ohio students from low to moderate-income families," according to the Web site. This new program will cover need-based students in both private and public institutions. "Need-based doesn't really work for me because my parents make enough to not get any money [from the FAFSA]," said sophomore music major Holly Koncelik. "It's really annoying because we do need financial aid but [the government] thinks we don't." According to Associate Director of Financial Aid Phil Bovenizer, the government is also planning on giving private institutions state assistance in a separate block grant, in addition to the OCOG. "From what little we have been told to date, the pool of funding we will receive to offer our students will equate to 90 percent of the total allocation we had received during academic 2007-2008 from both the Ohio Instructional Grant and Ohio College Opportunity Grant programs," Bovenizer said. "We shouldn't be hindered because we chose to go to private schools," Koncelik said. The Financial Aid Office recommends that students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as soon as possible. The FAFSA ensures that students will be reviewed for all available grant funding from federal, state and college resources. Bovenizer also suggests that students can also file the Special Circumstance form if they have had a significant change in their life that impacts their ability to pay for college. The economy, in addition to causing state budget cuts, is causing students' difficulty to acquire loans. "I was receiving my school loans through a certain bank since I came to Otterbein, and now they don't offer school loans anymore. Now I have to scour the market and find a new bank or company to get a loan from, and it's proving to be near impossible," Cody Boyce, junior music business major said. According to Bovenizer, private loan lenders have tightened the criteria required for students to borrow from their private loan programs. This is due to the overall credit crisis in this country. As a result, students generally must have a credit worthy cosigner to obtain their private loans. Private loans are also more expensive in terms of the fees charged to make the loan, as well as the interest rate assessed. t&c

STATE BUDGET CUTS ARE FELT BY ALL OF THE OTTERBEIN COMMUNITY:

STUDENTS

-Ohio Choice Grants have been cut

-Non need-based aid has been slashed

-Private loans are more difficult to acquire

COLLEGE

-Otterbein tuition is set at a record low 3.8% increase for next year

-Otterbein board rates are frozen

-Budgets for departments are frozen