SHEFA approves 331 applications, denies 116

The Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance Office approved yesterday a total of 331 applications for fall semester financial awards and denied 116 other applications.

In a regular board meeting at the Saipan Mayor’s Office, SHEFA administrator Henry Hofschneider reported that another 331 applications remain for assessment and, since the deadline for supporting documents is Sept. 30, the final number of approved scholars will likely go up.

SHEFA received a total of 776 applications for the fall semester of 2011. Hofschneider said his office projects to approve 520 applications this semester.

Hofschneider said the award for the initial batch of 331 scholars will total $570,100.

SHEFA has a budget of $3 million for its scholars. It will divvy up the amount among all approved scholars, with $1.5 million allocated for each semester.

The board directed Hofschneider yesterday to send a check request to the Department of Finance for the first batch of eligible scholars.

Majority of students whose applications were denied failed to meet the required grade point average, Hofschneider said, while others were noncompliant with the required credits.

Fall 2011 semester classes have already begun at the Northern Marianas College and in many off-island universities and colleges. With SHEFA still processing all applications, scholars and their families are currently shouldering their expenses while waiting for the approval of their financial assistance, Hofschneider said.

The board of directors was also informed yesterday that SHEFA overshot its budget last fiscal year, awarding scholarship grants that amounted to more than the $3 million allocated for 2011.

Hofschneider said the program disbursed over $900,000 for spring 2010 semester scholars and about $2.4 million for fall 2010 semester.

The board expects the Finance Department to “adjust” SHEFA’s future budget to offset the excess amounts awarded in both spring and fall 2010 semesters.

Meantime, Hofschneider said that 18 checks remain pending at Finance to complete the fall 2010 award disbursement. These include 16 checks for Framingham State University graduates and the two checks that were earlier requested for correction. For Framingham students, total pending award is $79,000, while the total for the two checks requesting correction is $4,000.