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<TITLE>Additional Spring 2008 OTAG Awards</TITLE>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">With the majority of institutions favoring additional Spring 2008 awards, we have extended the FAFSA receipt cutoff from 6/25/07 to<B> 7/15/08</B>. The EFC cutoff remains 1700. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Award Claim Forms based on this new awarding criteria have been created for all institutions and placed on O-SAFE for downloading. Reports will remain on O-SAFE for 5 days before being automatically deleted. </FONT><B> <FONT FACE="Arial">Attention ECU, NSU, SEOSU & OSU: </FONT></B> <FONT FACE="Arial">Your text files have been placed on the FTP server. While participation in this additional awarding process is at each institution's discretion, pre-populated reports have been provided for all institutions.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT FACE="Arial">As of today approximately $300,000 is available for additional awards. OTAG will process Award Claim Forms on a first come, first served basis. O-SAFE and the FTP server both enter a time and date stamp when a report is successfully uploaded, and we will process Award Claim Forms in the order in which they are received until the funds have been expended.</FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT FACE="Arial">IMPORTANT: </FONT></B> <FONT FACE="Arial">It is important that all OTAG funds requested by institutions in this final awarding process be disbursed to eligible students.</FONT></P>
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<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">It is essential and expected that all institutions will make every possible effort to ensure that award claims are submitted ONLY for student's whose eligibility to receive OTAG funds has been thoroughly confirmed (i.e. packaging issues resolved, Title IV compliance achieved, attendance, enrollment status (FT or PT), and satisfactory progress checked -- all eligibility criteria met).</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">It is NOT acceptable to request funds for a student who "might" be eligible with the expectation that funds could be returned to OTAG for cancellation in the event the student is found to be ineligible once the funds arrive on campus. Doing so could prevent eligible students at other institutions from receiving awards and also put us at risk of failing to meet our LEAP/SLEAP matching requirements. </FONT></LI>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">For those interested in more details about the responses to our recent survey of institutions regarding additional Spring versus Summer 2008 OTAG awards, the results were:</FONT></P>
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<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">31 institutions in favor of additional Spring 2008 awards</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">15 institutions in favor of implementing Summer 2008 awards</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">4 institutions reported they will not participate in additional awards for either Spring 2008 or Summer 2008</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Arial">19 institutions did not respond</FONT></LI>
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<P><FONT FACE="Arial">Please contact our office if you have questions concerning this final Spring 2008 OTAG awarding process. We appreciate your assistance in delivering OTAG funds to Oklahoma's students.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=6 FACE="Script MT Bold">Shiela Joyner</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Director, Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant Program</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">PO Box 108850</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Oklahoma City, OK 73101-8850</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Internet: sjoyner@otag.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Arial">Voice: 405.225.9378 or Toll Free 877.662.6231</FONT>
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