College Opportunity Fund (COF) Overview

1
College Opportunity Fund (COF) Overview

• Pat Burns, CSU
• CHECO Meeting
• September 29, 2004

2
Purpose and General Details

• As stated in the Act
• Increase access to higher education through
  direct provision to students of a stipend
• Not a voucher!
• Greater accountability of higher ed institutions
  through
• Performance contracts for fee for service
  activities

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General Details

• Advertisement of the COF program is to begin in
  8th grade
• To be implemented for Fall 2005 semester
• Many areas and issues still not well defined

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Elements of the COF

• Stipends
• Flat per credit hour
• 80/credit hour proposed for FY 06
• Independent of institutional mission
• Now, 2 streams for tuition
• Total in-state tuition
• Stream 1 - Students share of in-state
  tuition, capped
• Stream 2 - Stipend, not capped receipt must
  show this and attribute it to the COF program
• If the stipend is reduced in any fiscal year,
  institutions are prohibited from increasing the
  students share to make up the difference

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Performance Contracts

• Fee for service
• All services other than eligible courses
• Performance contracts
• For fee for service areas
• Significant legal issues exist
• Required to become an enterprise, in addition to
  lt 10 of total funding from the state
• Must allocate 20 of increases in tuition above
  inflation for need-based assistance
• CCHE is planning to issue this fall an RFP for
  performance contracts for private institutions

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College Access Network (CAN)

• Administer the program
• Implement the trust fund
• Institutions that do not use CAN for student
  loans will be charged
• A one-time implementation fee
• On-going fees
• Set by CAN, not to exceed actual costs

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Whos Involved

• Rick ODonnell, CCHE consulting with the CEOs
• Performance contracts
• SURDS, even for private institutions
• COF Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)
• Conduit for information flow only
• Items referred to CAOs, CFOs, CIOs and DAG,
  and brought back to COF TAC for discussion
• Then forwarded to ODonnell and CEOs
• CAN, Jeanne Adkins
• Administer the program and the COF trust fund

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COF TAC

• Formed by CCHE to advise on policy and issue
  resolution for all areas of SB04-189.
• Four institutional reps.
• Routes issues to various groups for
  recommendations little or no communication from
  the group no formal notes.
• TAC isnt a decision-making body per se but still
  makes decisions related to issue identification
  and resolution by other groups.
• Meets weekly via phone conference.

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COF TAC Members

• Jenna Allen, CCHE - COO
• Jeanne Adkins, CAN
• Pat Burns, CSU CIO Rep.
• Bill Kuepper, CCHE - CAOs

• Rich Schweigert, CCHE - CFOs
• Fran Schoneck, UNC, CFO Rep.
• Dr. John Sowell, WSC, CAO Rep.
• Kimberley Thompson, CCD, DAG Rep.

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Stipends

• Public institutions
• Private institutions CC, DU and Regis _at_ 50
• Constant per credit hour for eligible courses
• A student must
• Apply to the COF program
• Each semester, authorize the use of the stipend
  (all or nothing at each institution)
• 145 credit limit, except 30 credits will be added
  (175) if 145 used and a Batchelors degree has
  been obtained
• Waivers more on this later

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The Players and Their Parts

• Legislature, funding of
• Stipends
• Fee for service
• Scholarships
• CCHE
• Recommend funding to the Legislature
• Performance contracts
• College Access Network (CAN)
• Receive and disburse funding for stipends
• Accounting of credits and

• Students
• Apply to the COF
• Authorize the use of the COF stipend each
  semester, at each institution
• Institutions
• Directed to require eligible students to apply
• Verify student eligibility
• Identify COF-eligible courses
• Implement in an auditable fashion more later

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Application to the COF Program

• Students will apply to CAN with
• Name
• DOB
• SSN (login name on the CAN web site!!!)
• Email address (for password)
• CAN will keep track of eligible credits
• Issue how will the database be initially
  seeded for current students? Probably from
  SURDS.

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The CAN Database

• Student identity
• Name, DOB, SSN, email address
• Time history
• Eligible credits available
• Eligible credits used
• disbursed and to which institutions
• Waivers
• Individually web accessible
• By students, to apply and view their stipend
  balance
• By institutional staff, for support

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CAN Processing

• Batch transactions
• Query files frequently, as needed
• Invoice file once per term
• Disbursement file once per term
• Reconciliation file once per term

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Eligible Students

• Colorado residents
• Pell-grant eligible, if from a private
  institution
• At ½ the stipend rate

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Eligible Courses

• Resident instruction courses
• Not eligible
• Graduate courses
• Basic skills courses
• AP, IAB, courses
• Courses taken pursuant to the postsecondary
  enrollment options act
• High-school fast-track courses
• Census
• Snapshot taken at census to determine eligible
  courses
• Thereafter
• Ratcheting up only
• No refunds of COF credits or COF

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CAN Web Site

• A web link to which we hand students off
• A web transaction proposed but rebuffed
• Button Apply to the COF Program
• We mimic the COF application page at CAN
• We fill out the 4 data elements and transfer to
  CAN
• CAN performs the data check and returns a code
• We notify the student of the result
• CAN is opposed to this, during this first year

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Waivers

• CCHE waivers for
• Extenuating circumstances of health or physical
  ability
• Approved program requires more than 120 credit
  hours
• Degree requirements change during the students
  tenure
• Substantial economic hardship on student and
  family
• Institutional waivers
• 5 of students
• Priority is job retraining
• Legislation indicates a 1-year term
• Current thinking is by term
• Process still under much discussion, especially
  the ordering
• About 7-8 of current students in SURDS exceed
  145 credits

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Funding

• CCHE desires to fund stipends fully, at the
  expense (literally) of other programs
• Fee for service?
• Merit-based scholarships?
• Maybe even need-based scholarships?
• Also, projected gt 240 million deficit in the
  states budget for FY 06
• Higher ed budget is the only significant one left
  with this level of flexibility
• Tobacco securitization still being explored

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Advertising

• CCHS\E has hired a marketing person to develop
  some advertising materials for this activity
• So we are portraying the situation uniformly
• Have seen nothing from them yet, except a mandate
  to use the terms defined in the legislation

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Implementation

• As financial aid
• How is still being debated
• An award, or
• A resource

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Modifications to our Systems

• Tuition policy
• SIS, including
• Student data
• Financial aid
• Accounts receivable
• Waiver process

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SIS Issues

• 2 streams of tuition
• Eligible students
• Application to COF status
• Eligible course sections (RI vs. non-RI)
• COF stipend usage history, by term
• Affirmative authorization
• Courses and
• Remaining eligibility
• Batch transaction files

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Significant Issues

• Cash flow disbursements in September (August
  the 1st year)
• Exceeding 145 credits at multiple institutions
• Which institutions get paid which amounts?
• Funding
• If stipends funded fully, may reduce funding of
  other areas
• No process defined in the case of the trust fund
  being exhausted, probably not FIFO
• Performance contracts
• Lots of legal issues being explored
• Much work left to do in very little time

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Questions

• Are most welcome.