[Oasfaa] OK Promise - OHLAP New Procedures

[Alexander, Carol]

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />Attention:  Financial Aid Officers and OK Promise - OHLAP Contacts:

 

To increase security with our OK Promise-OHLAP student information, we are implementing new procedures for both: (1) verifying student eligibility and (2) transferring claim forms between institutions and our office.  We hope the new procedures are fairly painless and will actually be preferred over the old system.

 

Since we are enhancing security, both of the new procedures require a user ID and password that will be provided to you in separate emails or by phone.  (At this time, the user ID and password will be the same for both procedures.)  All OK Promise-OHLAP awarding institutions will be able to have access to this site.  I will begin distributing this information to you today.  If you have not received a user id and password by the time you are ready to submit a claim for the spring semester, please contact our office at  <mailto:okpromise at osrhe.edu> okpromise at osrhe.edu.  Please keep this information in a safe place and limit the number of people who have access to it.

 


Student Eligibility Verification


As you are aware, for security purposes the comprehensive OK Promise-OHLAP student eligibility list is no longer available for downloading.  We have a temporary solution for the spring 2007 verification process that we will expand prior to the fall 2007 semester.  You will enter the password-protected site at  <https://www.okhighered.org/ohlap/ohlapelig/Login.aspx> https://www.okhighered.org/ohlap/ohlapelig/Login.aspx.  (Please save this link to your favorites for easy reference.) You will be able to enter from one to 10 students' SSNs.   Once you submit the request, the system will search a list of eligible students and respond with one of three replies:  (1) eligible along with the eligibility expiration date (2) not eligible - indicating this is not an OHLAP student or (3) not a valid SSN.  If you cannot find the student on the list and the student produces an award letter or insists that he/she is eligible for the scholarship, have him/her contact our office.  We may have an incorrect SSN on record that needs to be corrected.

 

We are aware that many of you have hundreds if not thousands of OK Promise-OHLAP students on your campuses and entering each student is not efficient.  Please bear with us until fall to resolve that issue completely.  Our plan is to have a more comprehensive search system in place before then that can handle batch data in addition to single inquiries.  In the meantime, I would recommend using your fall 2006 claim as a starting point and building your spring 2007 claim from it.  I would caution you to consider any students who may be around the age of having their eligibility expire - you should probably check these individually through the verification process.  Those that completed a baccalaureate degree at the end of the fall semester will also no longer be eligible.  We will do our best to process the claims as quickly as possible this spring and notify you of any problems we may find.

 


File Transfer for Claims


The file transfer system was implemented in the fall 2006 with OTAG, so some of you may be familiar with it already.  If you are already using it for OTAG, the good news is that your user ids and passwords will be the same for all of the scholarship/grant programs administered by OSRHE.  The file transfer system is a secure method of sending documents with sensitive information back and forth from our office to yours and vice versa.  One of the unique features that was recently added is an e-mail that is automatically generated when a file is uploaded informing the recipient that it is available to download.  Our office will be notified when you upload a file and your institution will be notified when our office uploads a file.  The instructions are attached to this e-mail.

 

In addition, we will not send any sensitive data (including SSNs) over e-mail, and we would ask that you refrain from doing this as well so that we do not jeopardize any student's personal information.  We are researching another method of communicating this information in a more secure way and will update you as soon as it is available.

 

Just a reminder, please give me a few days to get everyone notified of the user ID and password.  If you have any questions regarding either of these procedures, please let me know.

 

Carol Alexander
Oklahoma's Promise - OHLAP
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK  73104
Phone:  405.225.9160
Fax:  405.225.9392
E-mail:   <mailto:calexander at osrhe.edu> calexander at osrhe.edu
 
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 108850
Oklahoma City, OK  73101
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