Loans, scholarship office assists hurricane-affected students
|
Angella Current-Felder |
Sept. 26, 2005 By Vicki Brown* NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (UMNS) — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the United Methodist
Church’s loans and scholarships office began combing through records to
determine which students receiving financial aid might have had their
studies or their jobs interrupted by the storm. “We wanted to take
a proactive approach,” said Angella Current-Felder, executive director
of the Office of Loans and Scholarships at the United Methodist Board of
Higher Education and Ministry. The staff moved to defer for six
months loan payments owed by about 100 borrowers in Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama, the three states devastated by the storm, she
said. Most creditors were delaying payments for three months for
borrowers in the affected areas, but loans and scholarship staff wanted
to be as generous as possible. Collections staff mailed letters
notifying borrowers and their cosigners of the deferment. No interest
will be charged during the six-month deferment period.
|
A UMNS photo by Peggy Cooper Students
evacuated from the flooded campus of Dillard University in New Orleans
sleep on a gymnasium floor at Centenary College in Shreveport.
|
Students
evacuated from the flooded campus of Dillard University in New Orleans
sleep on a gymnasium floor at Centenary College in Shreveport, La. The
president of the historically black United Methodist-related college is
asking the church's Board of Higher Education and Ministry to collect
donations to help with Dillard's hurricane recovery. A UMNS photo by
Peggy Cooper. Photo #05-H025. Accompanies UMNS story #485. 9/2/05 |
“It’s not clear if former students making loan payments can even receive
mail, so we sent letters about the deferment to the cosigner, too,”
Current-Felder said.Arrangements were being made to stop
automatic draft payments from borrowers in the affected area who were
already paying off loans. “If they lost their job due to the hurricane,
we don’t want to be dipping into their bank accounts,” Current-Felder
said. Staff began e-mailing scholarship recipients who were
enrolled at any affected schools, such as United Methodist-related
Dillard University or Tulane, both in New Orleans. Scholarship
payments that have not yet been made can go to the school where the
student is now enrolled. “We wanted to do something to help the
students so they don’t have to worry about their scholarships or loans.
We wanted to make it easier on them as they dealt with the hurricane,”
said James Harding, assistant executive director for loans
administration and operations at the board.
|
A UMNS photo by Peggy Cooper Evacuated Dillard University students watch the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina at Centenary College in Shreveport, La.
|
Dillard
University students watch the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Some
250 students were evacuated to Centenary College in Shreveport after
Dillard's campus was flooded in New Orleans. The president of the
historically black United Methodist-related college is asking the Board
of Higher Education and Ministry to collect donations to help with
Dillard's hurricane recovery. A UMNS photo by Peggy Cooper. Photo
#05-H026. Accompanies UMNS story #485. 9/2/05 |
Harding said the office wants to make sure students receiving loans get the funds they need to stay in school.Annually,
students are required to recertify their enrollment status to avoid
going into repayment. For students affected by Hurricane Katrina, the
office has decided to recertify automatically their student-deferred
status until May. This is being done because many will be unable to
obtain certification from the schools they attend. Colleges and
universities that have accepted evacuee students will be notified that
even though no new scholarship funds are available, these students have
priority in receiving loans. The decline in congregations giving
to special Sunday offerings has wreaked havoc on the number of
scholarships the United Methodist Church’s higher education agency can
give to eligible applicants, according to Current-Felder. The Office of
Loans and Scholarships had to turn away 300 eligible applicants last
year. In
an earlier UMNS report, Current-Felder attributed the financial
shortfall in scholarship awards to a decline in giving to the three
special Sunday offerings that enable scholarships to United Methodist
students —World Communion Sunday, which provides scholarships for ethnic
minorities; United Methodist Student Day, which enables undergraduates
to attend United Methodist-related schools; and Native American
Ministries Sunday, which provides scholarships for Native Americans
pursing master of divinity degrees. Higher education officials
are urging United Methodists to remember World Communion Sunday, coming
up Oct. 2, and United Methodist Student Day, Nov. 27. Native American
Ministries Sunday will be April 30. For more information, contact the Loans and Scholarships Office at (615) 340-7342 or e-mail James Harding at jharding@gbhem.org. *Brown
is an associate editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation at
the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry. News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
|