Over 2,000 BYU-Idaho students experiencing major financial aid delay
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REXBURG — Many Brigham Young University-Idaho students are experiencing an unusual delay in receiving their federal loans and they say they can’t pay rent, buy books or even purchase groceries.
The university says more than 2,000 students are still waiting to receive loan money from their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
“For me it’s really vital,” BYU-Idaho student Samantha Irons says. “My loans go mostly towards paying my summer rent and then providing food. But I still haven’t been able to pay my rent and it’s been kind of difficult.”
Typically funds are dispersed as soon as the first day of school but this year, students received a notice before school started that there could be problems with Pell grants, scholarships, and loans because of new software.
“We have been in the process of implementing a new software system that, in the end will make it more user friendly and more efficient for everybody involved,” BYU-Idaho spokesman Brett Sampson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “Unfortunately, and ironically, it’s become a bit of a problem.”
Workers in the financial aid department are trying their best to resolve the issue. They are manually processing loans so students can receive their funds and are directing students to BYU-Idaho’s short-term loans. University financial deadlines have also been extended.
“Things like tuition, class fees, those kinds of university fees have been postponed,” Sampson says.
BYU-Idaho senior Tom Snider says regardless of the schools short term fixes he feels he’s still had a difficult time retrieving his funds.
“As a student it has been very frustrating to get financial aid,”Snider says. “It has been hard to live, and plan out the semester without these funds. The school has provided short term loans, but it has only been a band aid on the real problem.”
Sampson says the university hopes the issue will be resolved within a week or two. In fact, some Pell grants and scholarships have already been dispersed.
Irons says the school is working with her after weeks of voicing her concerns and she hopes an issue like this doesn’t happen again.
“They should at least let students know more than 11 days before the semester begins that a big update is going on,” Irons says. “Hopefully it will be fixed soon.”